The water elemental pours itself into the spiky hole, where it finds itself compressed and pressed against the sides of the pit. Despite this, it tries to strike at the small salamanders next to it... they in turn lash out against it with their tails, occasionally managing to wrap themselves around it and squeeze, the natural heat of their bodies causing the elemental to evaporate into steam. It shrinks, and shrinks, until eventually, it is no more.
In between the potions passed to her by Ary, Hinagiku also takes and drinks a few potions. It was intense, but she needed to be in peak shape for what was to come.
Being a part of the siesta was important, and Xanderghul retrieves the last of his healing potions from the side pocket on his haversack and awkwardly tips them into Isilme's mouth while she feeds other people their own potions. He was the only one in the group that didn't really need to be healed, after all.
Although practically everyone looked battered, singed, and bloodied... apart from Ary who seemed mostly intact thanks to her magic ring, Hinagiku heads for the room's door. After closing her eyes to prepare herself for the rooms heat, she looks to her companions.
"I am ready."
"Time to get moving, I suppose." Ary says, nodding towards the door. "Are you able to dispel your pit, so we can take them out Xander, or will we need to worry about them coming around behind us?" Ary, like her companions, was still just as battered and bloodied, though far less singed. She was also covered in demon ichor. The brief chances she'd had to pause hadn't been met with her use of the ring, unfortunately.
"Who are we going to have open the door?"
"Perhaps Ehren could seal them in with a wall?" Isilme responds to Ary. "They might give up attempting to get out long enough for us to finish. Ayavah, can you prepare the wand of haste for when we entre the ritual chamber?"
Ayavah nods and takes the wand. "I can manage that. Should make things at least a little easier, right?"
Val finishes downing all of the potions, feeling her bruises and cuts starting to mend, but still feeling just a bit below full strength. "I suggest Daisy or Ary take the lead. You two are in better shape than I am and you can take a hell of a beating. I'll come in right behind and support. Let's do this thing."
Their path decided, the heroes decide to head out.
"I have a spell that could do something to that effect," Ehren replies. "But those salamanders went down fairly easily, and there are only two of them left."
Once the group agrees that break time is over, Ehren makes his way out the door, heading back into the forge room.
Taking advantage of her speed, she follows the others out last, channeling energy to further heal them once she's out with them.
Anevia rushes along behind everyone else, trying to keep up whilst preparing for what is to come.
Ary moves straight ahead, stopping just in front of the doors... though leaving the others with enough room to throw them open.
As soon as Ary gives the signal, Hinagiku launches into a quick run, reaching the pit and the door quite quickly. Locking gaze with Ary, she nods, signaling that she'll open the door whenever told to.
The heroes head back into the forge room and into the horrifically oppressive heat. The salamanders are still in the pit in the floor trying miserably to get out. One has even managed to scale the walls somewhat.
Ehren eyes the salamanders, aware that the pit would not be around to hold them forever. He was disappointed that his elemental had been unable to finish the job, though in hindsight, it was not best suited for the task.
The druid waits with baited breath for Hinagiku to open the door.
Ary, unwilling to cost everyone more time - and more exposure to the heat - in order to prepare just a bit more, simply nods her assent.
Hinagiku tests the door... and finds that it is locked.
"I've got this," Val says as she realizes that the doors are locked. Considering they cultists want to keep them out at all costs, such a simple method of doing so had completely flown over her head. She pulls her thieves' tools out of her bandoleer and quickly pops the lock with a few twists of the slender picks.
After Valaria clicks open the lock, Hinagiku pushes it open, revealing a small dais of steps that descends into an oddly shaped chamber, while more stairs lead to the northwest and southeast. Lit candles surround the circle of arcane purpose scribed onto the floor, with a total of 6 cultists at each of its points. Overhead, the ceiling rises nearly forty feet. A large crystal hangs overhead from a heavy chain, pulsing in the reflected light. Magical energy is being channeled from the cultists, who stand and chant, through the crystal and back down to the floor, where a rippling portal into another dimension has been forced open. It flickers occasionally, and it is enormous, spanning just shy of the entire height of the forty foot ceiling... and it seems to be growing larger still.
In the back of the room is a 10' by 10' stone arch, and underneath it is a tiefling woman wearing a long green dress and a cape made of what appear to be enormous insect wings. On her arms are several bracelets of enormous wooden beads on a string. As she chants she shakes these bracelets rapidly, creating a noise similar to the buzzing of insects. The other cultists are dressed similarly - they have long, black and green cloaks over chainmail, and on their backs are wicked scythes. The woman across the from the head cultist, however, is wearing full plate, and rather than a scythe, she wields a greatsword. Despite her decidedly martial-like appearance, she is chanting softly and channeling with the rest of them.
The ritual that is being conducted is almost complete. At this point, all of the cultists must be killed or otherwise subdued in order to stop the ritual. Even one cultist who continues to chant may cause the rift finalize. Once finalized, the rift will continue to grow on its own without control, until it likely consumes part of the citadel itself. Such a destabilizing event will likely destroy the citadel's structural integrity, causing several tons of stone to rain down on its inhabitants, killing everyone still inside, and likely sucking the Sword of Valor into the Abyss itself.
There are some actions that may buy you some time:
-> A large enough amount of water can wash away the silver powder that forms the arcane markings drawn onto the floor. Erasing the entire circle would delay the ritual somewhat, but not stop it entirely.
-> Destroying the crystal overhead, or at least bringing it down from the ceiling, would delay the ritual.
You estimate that you have less than a minute.
Round 1!
As the door opens, the green-dressed tiefling at the end of the room opens her eyes and gives the heroes a small smile. "You're too late. Soon, the rift will be complete! There is nothing you can do but accept your fate...truly, the thousand voices whisper that oblivion comes to us all..."
Hinagiku, Ayavah, Anevia, Ehren, Isilme, Xanderghul and Ary are up!
As soon as the door swings open, Ayavah waves the wand in her hands and the magic shoots out, laying the supportive enchantment over the party.
"Oh that's not good," Val mutters. "This is looking like it's about to go Worldwound Act 2. We need to shut that down somehow."
"Maybe if we break the crystal? . Ary suggests as soon as she sees the energy running between the floor and ceiling, head pounding in tune with the crystals thrums.
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Too distracted by the blaring of heroic trumpets, the panic of being pulled back into the Abyss, and the formulae for his most powerful spells building in his mind, Xanderghul isn't able to focus on the specifics of the ritual, the portal, or its creators. Instead, he simply focuses on his shadowcraft. "Only one way forward," he says, his hands tingling with the buildup of magic. "It's time for the reaping portion of farmwork." Xanderghul realizes too late that this sounds just like a joke that an Erastilian would make (if there was ever an Erastilian that wasn't fatally stern).
To punctuate his words, his hands trace a complex series of signals and runes in the air, and he pronounces words unreproducible using the Taldane alphabet. He casts a shadow evocation, and a tiny red bead of concentrated fire flies into the center of the portal. As it bursts, it fills both the ritual chamber and whatever horrible landscape lies beyond with quasireal fire.
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For a split second after opening the doors, Hinagiku freezes unsure as to which cultist was the head one. But, as soon as the winged woman speaks it becomes clear, only the leaders of the oni's goaded, and so she must be the one guiding the ritual. With all the strength she can muster, Hinagiku runs toward Chorussina. And, when she realizes she won't make it before the woman infuses the ritual with more of her dark power, the monk reaches deep within, calls onto whatever power from her mother still lingers in this forsaken place. The pain in the legs, the lingering oppressive feeling of warmth, they all go away as Hinagiku's step become lighter than ever and guide her to the cultist's side.
"No." she softly whispers as she takes one hand from the woman, twists it backward and knees her leg to force her down.
Anevia's form flickers as she moves towards the doorway, "Sure thing, boss, one chandelier coming right dow... boss. I can't destroy that thing. That thing is huge. How about I go for the chain?" Anevia offers. Knowing her luck... it wouldn't matter. Not since the bell incident. She comes to a stop where she can still see above the crystal, draws back her invisible bow, forming a thread of silver, and then unleashes an oversized longsword straight for the chain.
Ary moves in past Xanderghul just after his fireball whumpfs through the room, bringing faith directly to bear against the armored cultist, threatening to send her flying into the portal... and even if she doesn't, the threat was certain to have shaken her enough to be open to further assault.
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Isilme steps around the corner, looking into the room ahead. The situation was dire now, there would be little chance to stop the ritual unless they stopped the cultists entirely. [smaller]"We must stop them all from chanting. Destroying the crystal will buy us time, as will washing away the magic circle on the floor with water."
Reaching out to her goddess, Isilme prays for the inspiration to aid her allies in this final battle. The magic she draws upon flows through her words, molding and shaping them, imparting them with the will and clarity necessary to overcome this final obstacle.
"Now at fate's threshold, we peer into the future ahead //
The journey here was long, the trials many; //
not all who walked this path stand with us now, //
but each of their efforts added to our own. //
They were the stairs which reached where we alone could not, //
and all that remains is to take that final step."
When Ary lunges forward to knock away the cultist in plate, she draws upon her nearly exhausted reserves of magic to boost the force of her charge. "Return her to where she belongs, Ary!"
The cultist's eyes widen as Hinagiku crosses the gap to her - impossibly fast - and then forces her to the ground. Ayavah wrinkles her nose... she hadn't expected that either, and now Hinagiku was too far for her catch with her wand. Oh well.
Ehren is up!
"There is no fate but what we make for ourselves," Ehren replies defiantly, having absolutely no interest in being swallowed up by the Abyss. The fact that these cultists did was almost more disturbing than the ghastly portal itself. Conjuring the power of elemental earth, he raises a hand over his head, before whispering apologetically, "Watch your head, Hinagiku."
When he brings his arm swinging back down, dirt, gravel, and small stones suddenly start falling from out of thin air in a downpour, as though someone had just emptied an immense buck of the stuff over the cultists' heads. The rain lasts only a second, but the conjured earth remains, littering much of the ground in the chamber. Giving anyone standing on it unstable footing... anyone but his allies, at least, seeing as he already prepared them for this eventuality.
Stones rain down into the temple of Deskari, and Isilme's voice is barely audible above the din. Then, as if coming from the portal itself, a massive explosion of flame fills the room. Hinagiku manages to duck out of the way just in time, though several of the cultists are badly immolated. Strangely, the tiefling in plate simply laughs maniacally amidst the flames, a strange glint behind her eyes as she readies her greatsword.
Once the flames subside. Anevia takes a quick shot at the chain above, cracking one of the four links.. but the crystal remains steady. The armored tiefling stops laughing when Ary makes her way to her, slamming her shield right into her chest and sending her flying into the portal. The heroes can hear her screams... then they abruptly go silent. The cultists glance at each other once, then return to their chants, more feverishly than before.
Behind them, Xanderghul's pit abruptly becomes level with the floor, sealing itself off as if nothing had happened. The salamanders are stunned for a moment at the sudden change, but they recover quickly. Hissing angrily, one moves over to Ayavah and quickly gores her with its spear. The other moves around and skewers Isilme, who is just a hair too fast for it to gore her straight through her heart.
Valaria is up!
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Val looks up at the crystal as Isilme calls out the target to slow the ritual. "If they want the Abyss so bad, then we'll send them there the express way." Unfortunately, she very much doubts that her knives can strike the crystal from the ceiling in a single instant. She elects to change her focus to hammer the cultists standing around the gate with knives. She draws a brace of cold iron daggers and sends them hurtling at the least injured cultists she can get a knife in, trying to slay them with well placed blades.
One.. two... three... inspired by Isilme's magic, Valaria quickly fells three of the remaining cultists.
Chorussina pulls herself up from the ground and vanishes from Hinagiku's grasp, appearing at the side of the final cultist. "Nish'k bim pim. Thri'hi lu bilki," she hisses.
She then raises a hand and sprinkles powder in front of her, creating a shimmering, semi-visible wall across the room, between the heroes and the last two women.
And she was right.. the edges of the rift start to gnarl and contort like a mass of too many tentacles, pressing up against the ceiling and causing hairline cracks to spread across the ceiling. Rubble starts to rain down from the ceiling and onto the heroes below, though, to be fair, it is hard to tell what is being caused by the increasingly intense tremors, or the remnants of Ehren's spell.
And, if that weren't terrible enough, three schir leap through the portal and bleat happily at the chaos surrounding them. The middle one starts licking the corroded blade of his halberd in anticipation...
Round 2!
Hinagiku, Ayavah, Isilme, Xanderghul, Ehren, and Ary are up!
Ayavah yelps in panic as the two salamanders suddenly rise up into the middle of the room and slither toward her. She waves her hands, transforming herself into a cloud of hazy magical mist and floating straight up out of the reach of their weapons.
Relentless, Xanderghul grabs ahold of Isilme's hand and focuses on his newfound ability to step through shadow. Closing his eyes, he takes a step forward and pulls Isilme along with him. It's draining, but the pair of them rush across the battlefield, appearing in a haze of darkness on the other side of the wall of force. Xanderghul eyes the last two remaining cultists and gives them a devilish grin.
Stepping towards the cultists, Xanderghul sheathes his knife and prepares his final shadow-evocative spell.
Hinagiku had been ready for Chorussina's maneuver, and when the cultist stands up, it is not one strike she needs to avoid, but tow, as Hinagiku strains to attack as rapidly as her body will allow.
Ary and Anevia both wince in direct relation to the screams coming from the portal. That was... not good. Anevia's attention moves to the rear, while Ary's continues to be everywhere at once.
Anevia grins as the barrier made of glass appears between her and the foes. Ahah! She could teleport through things she could see through! The fools! With the Salamanders well at hand with Isilme's rapier... but then Isilme and Xanderghul disappear in a non-flash, oozing up from the ground like some strange parasitic eldritch nightmare. Or maybe that was just the planar energies playing tricks on her. Regardless, he had totally stolen her trick -and- could carry people with him. She'd figure out something better, soon... But that left Ayavah undefended...
"I've got it. Disrupt the ritual, Anevia." Ary says, cutting across the rogue's thoughts. "Aye aye, cap'n!" Anevia calls as she darts towards the wall, vanishing just before she touches it. Her shadow slips along the umbra of Ehren's fallen rocks, to reconverge in the area opposite Xanderghul and Isilme... no sense in all standing together. That's how you get twiddlefingered. Her bow is already in position to fire as she releases the arrow.
As the ground quakes around them, Ary darts back into the previous room, skidding just before and then stepping into the Salamander's reach, bringing her glittering blade careening around in a savage arc.
As the butterfly like cultist steps away and seals herself behind what appears to be a magical wall, and the room is suddenly invaded by a group of onis, Hinagiku takes a step back to better gauge the scene. From where she was, there was not much she could do, except attract the attention of the schirs. And so, the monk enters back into a fighting stance, directly staring at her foes, and hoping that her being alone would be enough to goad the bloodthirsty beasts.
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The experience of teleporting across the room with Xanderghul is not at all what Isilme expects. Instead of the rush associated with the teleports she'd had as a raelis, there was instead a sinking sensation as they passed through something that grabbed and clung at her. When they arrive, it's not exactly where she'd imagined them, either, another substantial difference from her own abilities.
"Thank you, Xanderghul, we can work with this," she says, bringing her rapier to bear on the problem at hand. Meeting Chorussina in the eyes, she grins at her, "Yes, keep trying dear, it has worked so well for all of you so far. A swarm of locusts is only terrifying if you are not prepared and have never seen them before, but to those familiar with them, they are just mindless insects. No story of triumph was ever put to paper about the heroic triumph of such a swarm, only minor footnotes of the effects of their passing. We have crushed your armies, outwitted your traps and spies, killed your leaders, and now here we are. Tomorrow we will hold Drezen, and you will be another footnote in history."
"Impeccable timing, Anevia!" she says as the chanting cultist falls. Isilme moves quickly to take the cultist's spot moving past the locust-winged caster and turns, readying to strike if the cultist attempts to flee or cast.
Isilme moves closer to finish off the chanting cultist, thrusting at the tiefling's throat. She presses the attack against her, hoping to put an end to her and then turn her attention quickly to the head caster.
As Chorussina stands up, just as she vanishes, Hinagiku clocks her twice thinking that it would cause her to lose her focus, but it appears her ability to move through cracks of reality is something innate to her, as natural as breathing, and she vanishes all the same.
Meanwhile, in the back, Ayavah grits her teeth with frustration as the others seem to ignore her... too weak now to employ her usual methods of escape, she throws up an illusion around her and backs away, but the salamander lunges again, skewering into her midsection again. She screams out in pain and nearly falls to the ground. "Please... help," she calls out.
Ehren is up!
Ayavah throws up her hands and hurried casts a spell to weave an illusion around herself and shrinks back a step, trying to get out of the reach of the fiery monsters' weapons. Just as she shifts back, Ary suddenly appears between them, shielding the tiefling with her own body and standing against the salamanders. Ayavah looks momentarily surprised as Ary is the first to move to defend her.
Between the earthquake, the goat demons and the yawning portal to the Abyss, one could be forgiven for thinking that the situation wasn't under control. Still, the fact that they were cutting it so close was hardly comforting. Ehren wobbles on his feet, not daring to take a step, lest he fall flat on his space.
Disregarding the schir in front of him, the druid points back at the salamanders and fires an acid dart.