I was weighing off the option divine power vs battle cry, as the battle cry would give that +1 to saving throws.
A gamble i'm unsure was wise :)
Seeing the difficulty the beast was causing Pratavh realized that his revelations were the only thing making the dragon vulnerable to injury. As his unique skill was needed her continued to apply his powers to weaken the creature.
Shikyo full attacks one more time, probably the last time.
Shikyo's katana flashes in a blur, his KI now dwindled to nothing.
Ah, i saw you edited the spoiler.
Hence...
Pwetty pwease retcon? :3
"Don't you have the guts to die on us Shiko, i'd come and give your ass a thrashing in the boneyard if you do."
Lilly sighs, as she just took a beating in exchange for her daring leap.
"I'll hack you one before i die!!"
Alwyn fired again and again and again! The dragon was moving so fast as it tried to batter Lilly, that Alwyn only got one shot in that counted. Most of the arrows bounced off Ikrimah's scaled, but one lodged under the right wing joint, causing Ikrimah to hiss with pain!
Pratavh continued his mystic assault, causing minute chinks in the otherwise impenetrable armored scales to wink in and out of existence. While this wasn't flashy magic, properly applied at the right time it was utterly devastating as his companions where about to prove!
Distracted by Alwyn, Lilly took full advantage and as Ikrimah reared up she plunged her sword into the dragons underbelly! Ikrimah screamed and a gush of blood rained down on Lilly as he thrashed about. She hung on for dear life, causing the blade to twist...
Shikyo leaped over Ikrimah's flashing tail and by pure instinct grabbed one of the spines on his back. By this time Ikrimah was bucking like a crazed mule, and Shikyo had to sink his blade deep into the dragons back to not get thrown off. Of course this enraged Ikrimah even more and the screams of the dragon where so loud it perforated his eardrums. Suddenly the world went quiet and with grim determination the ninja clambered from one spine to the next. Suddenly near the beast's shoulders, Ikrimah bucked unexpectedly and Shikyo lost his grip. He was flung from the side but flashed his sword out, biting deep into the dragons's flank, arresting his fall.
Some of the fight had gone out of Ikrimah by this stage and in moments Shikyo scrambled up to it's head, where he aimed a two handed thrust piercing the creatures skull. Suddenly like a marionette with it's strings cut, Ikrimah died and flopped to the ground, totally covering the altar...
When Ikrimah is dead, Lilly plucks out of her face the blood stained wet hair.
"Phtew....well, i've heard once the wondering of how i'd be as a redhead, but this is just silly."
She looks around to see how the others are doing, probably seeing a likewise wounded Shiko come from somewhere.
Lilly wipes off as much blood of her sword as she can, when she notices the altar.
"The altar, look at what is happening to the blood on it!"
Pratavh saw the great beast fall and realized that they'd done it, they'd ended the threat of the cult. Then he saw the blood boiling and realized that maybe it wasn't quite that easy. "That can not be good. What was it you said was needed to destroy the alter Lilly? Love and forgiveness? I believe we had better make sure this thing will never again be a threat to anyone. The question is how?" Hirati popped her head out and looked with sadness on the great dragon they had just killed, it may have been evil and deserved death, but it was still a dragon, still kin, albeit distant. The little dragon threw her head back and gave a great roar, or as close as she could, to honor the fallen beast and forgive him for trying to kill her friends, especially Prat.
Realizing that Bvar was still cowering Pratavh walked over to check on him while he thought of possible meanings of the method of destroying the alter. He reached out and offered Bvar his hand saying, "It is over now Bvar, we've won. Are you alright?" Hirati took off from Pratavh's pack and landed in Bvar's arms, nuzzling his hands with her head as she hoped he'd start giving her some attention, after all, everyone feels better when Hirati gives them the gift of stroking her head and frills.
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Bow in hand another arrow already knocked, Alwyn lets the song die on his lips as he watches the huge wyrm shudder and breath its last breath. The two fighters having gone toe to toe with the creature, and won, through sheer determination, skill, and and not a little magic between himself and Pratavh. Studying the scene to commit it to memory for later, he begins to notice the little things, the film over the dragon's eyes that still show a since of wonder and rage that it had lost. The curl of his tail, the backwards crook of that leg and the alter boiling with the blood covering it .... Alter boiling, that could be a problem. Ever the wordsmith "Uh guys we might still have a problem, look at the alter. Is there a way to destroy it?"
Lilly shakes her head at Alwyn's question.
"There is, but right now i don't know how i could it.
In my vision, the voice told me that only way to destroy it, is through forgiveness. Even if i could, i don't know how to start, weither saying forgiving the cult in general or the altar itself."
You hear a noise from the west and half a dozen heads poke around the western door. You recognize the prisoners from earlier, lead by Jalissa with the warriors Samar and Haljit behind her. They step lightly into the chamber and can scarcely believe what they see!
They glance at butchered remains of a massive dragon atop the altar with the corpses of two masters and the smashed remains of the statue. Their eyes are draw to Shikyo and Lilly and their eyes grow big as mutter, "Wow I can hardly believe it." One girl asks, "Am I dreaming? I keep on pinching myself but it's still here!" She points to Ikrimah's remains.
"No, you aren't dreaming.", Lilly says with a victorious smile.
"But it was one hell of a fight...a close call too."
When Pratavh cones over he find that Bvar is in a bit of a state. And Hirati whispers into his mind, "Boss we need to get him cleaned up. Can't leave him like this."
He looks up at Pratavh with shame written on his face, he whispers, "I am a fool and a failure. I thought I could kill that, that... H. Hah. I had no idea. And now I have bought shame to my house." It's clear he's taken it hard, but he seems to be absently stroking Hirati in a way she finds pleasing, at least for a few minutes.
Hirati continued to lay under Bvar's shaking hand as she continued to accept his stroking hand in an effort to calm him. Pratavh knelt and laid a hand on the man's shoulder and said, "Master Bvar, first you are no fool, no failure, without your aid we could never have done this, who helped keep assassin's off of us with his bow, who manned the ballista and helped pick off the undead in the pit, whose arrows killed attackers and helped drive off the weretiger?" Pratavh paused a moment and then said, "You did Master Bvar, you have been instrumental in this quest and don't you forget it."
His muscles protesting after all of this Pratavh sat beside Bvar and then continued to speak, "You think you have failed because of the dragon? Certainly not, that dragon was such a terrifying presence that even we were affected by it. You see, a dragon that age produces an aura of fear, much like the aura I create in battle to give glimpses of the future, I am sure you know what I refer to. If the aura gets a hold on your mind it causes paralyzing, completely understandable, fear. I honestly thought we were dead when it appeared, if it were not for the great level of discipline I have learned as a wizard I do not think I could have shaken it off either."
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Seeing Pratavh and Hirati go over to Master Bvar, Alwyn keeps his distance, while quietly approving of the wizard's word. Master Bvar had helped them greatly throughout their travels from the city, and in a sense had grown from that assistance. This was just too much, almost too much for them as it was.
Turning his attention back to his and Lilly's conversation concerning the alter .... "Lilly, wasn't the dragon much higher a little bit ago? Is ... could the alter be consuming the dragon?"
Lilly nods.
"You're right, on both accounts it seems.
Ironic isn't it? They wanted to sacrifice people, yet he's consumed himself."
Bvar nods and looks far away for a moment. He replies eventually, "Thank you for your kind words Pratavh, you're a good man." He seemed to be on the cusp of saying more before he suddenly asked, "What's that?"
You look where he's pointing and sure enough a section of the dragon's corpse appears to have slipped into the altar. A strange greenish black light is leaking out through deep marbled cracks. As you watch you notice it seems to pulse in a slow rhythm, like a heartbeat.
"...In my dream, that happened to me. My guess, there must have been some lingering spirit from the dragon, as the altar consumes life energy.
It feeds on it, it's consumed many already."
Jalissa shyly tells Lilly, "I wanted to thank you for saving us from the masters. They said where going to feed us to the altar, it sounded insane but there's something about it that scares me. Can you feel the malice radiating from it? It's like a physical force. I managed to hide this from them." She hands Lilly a small crystalline flower, "It's a Padma Blossom, from the sacred grove. I know a few charms and was able to cloud their sight over something small, too bad I couldn't use the charm on a person. The blossom has some small restorative properties and can cleanse the soul of fear, I sense it has some other purpose but I couldn't say what. I had a dream that I would hand it to my savior and it feels right it should be for you."
Lilly smiles, "You're welcome, you're safe and we are as well.
We're alive, and these cultists aren't ^^"
Stroking back a lock of red hair, she looks surprised, upon being presented a pretty charm.
"It looks beautiful.", she then shakes her head mildly and smiles.
"Funny thing is, i'm named after a flower.....and i get one in a place like this. Thank you."
As you speak, more of the dragon gets sucked into the altar. Strangely it seems the spilt blood is pooling towards the glowing stones defying gravity and reason.
Bvar's eyes grow large with fear as yet more of the dragon is pulled within. Where its bulk is going none of you could say, for the dragon is many times the size of the levitating altar.
Teeth chattering he cries, "If this carries on, the dragon will be completely consumed! T. tha that altar is the most malevolent thing I can imagine. We can't just leave it, what if someone or something found it? W. Wh. What can we do?!"
[Flash described by spoiler]
"Hell....i've just seen the past, not good at all.
Many, many have been sacrificed on this thing and....."
Blood flowing on the floor....
"If possible, cut off that flow of blood, i don't know what, but something's likely going to happen if it reaches the tiles."
formed from pink jade offers purity of mind and spiritual calm. While grasped, the blossom grants its holder a +3 competence bonus on concentration checks and suppresses the following on its
holder: morale bonuses, fear effects, and the confused, dazed, or stunned conditions. Twice per day, the bearer can cast calm emotions. You sense there is something more to this particular item, sonething latent and powerful but you couldn't say what.
After considering the problem a moment Pratavh said, "I think I see a solution, the altar thrice on fear and pain, that flower counters such effects with a feeling of love. I think we need to sacrifice the flower to the altar, it's inherent properties might be what it takes to destroy this thing forever. If it does not work then we can try and take down those columns and collapse the mountain on it."
Shikyo watches the proceedings.
We should be away from here before it finishes consuming the dragon. Nothing good will come of it.
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dense as ever it appears....
For once in total agreement with the surly ninja "I agree we need to be leaving and sooner rather than later. Pratavh try your plan, but if it does not work we should bury this alter under the mountain. At least until some fool decides to dig it back out." Alwyn says shaking his head, still thinking about the locked room upstairs. Running up the stairway Alwyn first goes to the empty room and cast detect magic upon it, if the magician could hide his dragon form no telling what spell he might have put on the 'empty' room.
Bvar picks himself up and takes a look at the damaged columns and says, "Hmm." He walks around them several times and mutters a few calculations. He then reports, "If we built up a big hot fire around these two I think that would shatter a good portion of the stone. Would take a good few hours for it to get hot enough and it would generate lots of smoke. Anyway if the columns shatter, which isn't certain but if they do then the ceiling will collapse. Everything in here will be buried under thousands of tonnes of rock. Lucky for us they have a lot of fire wood laid in. We also want to burn the oil and anything else we can lay out hands on."
While the party are talking, trying to decide what to do, there is a sudden sucking noise and a blur of motion. Your heads whip around to see the tip of the dragon's tail get sucked into the altar. With a sense of dread you realize there is nothing left except for the altar. It slowly rotates as it levitates in mid air pulsing with a sickly green light. The stone of the altar seems to have become almost transparent, and you can clearly see the dark veins inside pulsing like some kind of sickly shadow.
Like before the air becomes full of ethereal music, and you sense strange shadows out of the corner of your eye...
"I want to try Pratavh's proposal, nothing ventured, nothing gained right?"
"If i doesn't work the way you think it does, i can strike it back for us to grab it."
Balancing the flower on the flat of her sword, she places the flower upon the altar, then takes 10 feet distance.
As you get closer the air seems to get thicker and thicker. The volume of the whispers gets louder and louder until it's painful. Something is shreaking in your mind, and as you look forwards the room seems to fold inwards onto the altar. You notice it's hard to move, the air has become like treacle. Make a will save please.