Fortunately for the Sorcerer, the house protects him from the majority of the titan's final attack. He stumbles out from behind cover in time to see Selgaer put an arrow into the back of the fleeing orc.
"I can't put it out." Dramm stares at the inferno with apprehension.
This is your fault. An accusatory voice echoes inside his mind. Dramm pales at the thought, and for a moment he's sure he hears screams coming from the burning home.
You took too long, and the orcs got here first. If you hadn't been such a coward, maybe they wouldn't be burning right now.
It was too much to ignore. Dramm rushes to the burning building and breaks through the door.
The heat blisters Dramm's skin, and the influx of fresh air causes a backdraft. The sorcerer survives the initial blast of fire, pushing into the burning building. The smoke chokes and stings his eyes and he soon loses sight of the door. In a small corner he finds two people huddled away from the flames.
Out. I need to get them out. Where's the door? WHERE'S THE DOOR? The fire is spreading too quickly. Dramm carves a glyph in the air and aims at a wall. He hopes it's not structurally important...
The wall crumbles under the magical blast.
"Out! NOW!" Dramm chokes out, urging the couple through the hole.
Dramm stumbles out after the young couple and falls to the ground retching. The smoke burned in his lungs and he struggles to take in fresh air. Once the sickness passes, he stands and slowly trudges over to the young couple to heal them. Dramm immediately recognizes the male half of the couple.
"Flint? I'm glad I made it in time." Dramm had not seen the young man since Flint Flood had visited him in Anophth's shop nearly a year ago during one of his trading visits. Flint had warned Dramm that things were going poorly in the village since his departure. He reaches down to help the man to his feet, as well as Flint's wife, a woman Dramm recognized as Cynthia. She was the pride of her father, a farmer at the outskirts of the village names Hammond Price.
Even as he helped her up, Dramm saw her reluctance to take his hand. Flint had been a friend of Dramm and Ezra's growing up and had some sympathy for the events that occurred years ago. The Price family, however, had blamed the Hayles for the poor harvests that followed the failed ritual. He had wanted to see the Hayle's punished for their lack of faith. Cynthia supported her father, and was happy to see Dramm leave those years ago.
Suddenly Dramm pales when he remembers something Flint had told him back in the Crossings.
"Where is your child?"
"Dramm! Thank you..." Flint coughs, putting a hand on the sorcerer's shoulder. He manages a weak smile, which falters as soon as Dramm mentions the child.
"Elder Thomassan... The Long Mother's Children tried to protect Brace when the attack began, but they were no match for that metal giant. When it was clear they would fail, the Elder took our boy, along with the other children in the village. They're in the town hall. I think... I think he's performing some sort of ritual to call forth the Long Mother herself!"
Joy has at this point landed near Dramm - and heard Flint's reply.
She pales but has the presence of mind to say:
"We...we need to go to the town hall. Now! Where is it, Dramm?"
The sorcerer quickly carves out some healing magic. The wounds had been dangerously close to fatal.
"The center of town. There's a second chapel underground. That's where the altar is, that's where Thomassan will be." Dramm sets out toward the town hall with Joy, but suddenly halts his brisk pace at the side of one of the dead Children. This one had not rotted away into shadow like the others.
"Yes, I am here, Dramm." A raspy voice speaks from the Child's dead throat. The jaw had been broken buy the titan's mighty fist, but still the voice scratched it's way out like the body was a hollow jug.
"I'll kill you. I won't stand by and watch more children die." Dramm snarled. The creature laughed. A wretched, diseased sound.
"Oh Dramm, your willingness no longer matters. You are bound to me, and you will serve. You are too late to stop the ritual, and you are too late to stop your death. I will enter this world, and I will feast on your impurity. You have done everything according to the plans I laid out." The wolf cackled, then abruptly stopped. "Don't you remember what Ezra said when he died?" Gwnaeth mam ein cnawd ar gyfer gwledda. Rydym yn giât i'w hewyllys."
Dramm recoils in fear at the words, clearly shaken. The broken corpse then turned itself to face the party. It speaks in an almost playful manner.
"But what about you, Selgaer, Faun of the Court? Yes, I see you, little prey. I can hear your pitter-pattering little heart. I can dance to how desperately you wish to flee. Will you die for this fool? Or for the Elven Court that abuses you without a second thought to save their precious prince? You need not throw yourself away for this ungrateful human. It would be wasteful." The wolf lurches forward toward the faun with it's broken limbs. He can feel the presence inside the ruined body smiling at him.
"I can provide you with hunts that no mortal can dream of. Your body will no longer betray you with fear. You will be feared and admired, not looked down upon by arrogant magic users or used by Elven whim."
Joy glares at the broken shell that was once a child.
"How *dare* you! How dare you threaten, and steal, and kill! We'll stop you, you wicked crone!"
"Stop me?" The broken face coos at Joy. "Darling Joy, always the shining hero. You believe it in your heart that you will save the day, don't you? You forget, I have watched you all from inside of him. Are you curious what he sees in you?"
The remaining strength in the limbs of the Child give way with a wet crack. The torso collapses to the ground, but the voice continues.
"Fear. Dramm sees agonizing death for you, my sweet girl. Claws, fire, spells, blades, and fates worse than the end. He fears them because he knows that one day you will fail, and his fear will become real. He knows you will suffer for your silly dreams. Oh how they will turn to nightmares..."
Dramm goes rigid, shame and anger etched into his face.
"He can't look you in the eye because he knows you will see that fear. You will fail. To him you are a child that must be protected while it plays hero. But even that is a lie, isn't it Joy? You are not a little girl either, even if Dramm tells himself otherwise. You're a pitiable doll desperately pretending to be a noble little witch."
Selgaer looks at the dead child as it speaks; he knows what is there, behind those dead eyes - the creature if ruin and despair; he creature who brings innocent and guilty alike to their suicide.
The eyes and the voice drive him to fear. It washed over him like a thousand and one ants crawling on the inside of his skin. The fear was natural - something he'd had to overcome his entire life. It's why he went to far to prove that he wasn't afraid. It's why he did dangerous and borderline stupid things - like jumping on the back of a dragon - he has to prove to the world, and to himself, that he isn't afraid.
He swallowed the sensation down - a thick slug sliming its way down his esophagus, pausing at the entrance to his lungs for just long enough to make it hard to breath.
A mask of bravery solidified across his face and he glowered at the spirit behind the dead child's eyes. I know you see me. But the problem is not that you see me. The problem is that I see you. I see you, witch woman, and I am coming for you. With the last word, he slams his spear into the dead body's head.
There is a near-invisible struggle within Joy at the monster's words. The young witch almost breaks eye contact with the dead child but then holds firm. She is about to reply when the face that she is staring at is struck by Sel's spear.
Then, she simply says:
"We have to stop her. Right here, right now. Before anyone else gets hurt who doesn't have to be."
The obsidian spear easily dashes the head of the Child into pieces. The beasts remains quickly rot into shadow and smoke while fading words echo from the disintegrating throat.
"Come, pitiable doll. Your death will break them both. Hahahahahah-"
The last of the creatures crumbles away, leaving behind only silence. Dramm lowers a hand he hadn't realized was holding his temple. He nods slowly at Joy's determination, but does not meet the eyes of the group. Instead heals some of Uruuna's wounds, only speaking when he is finished.
"Stay here, Flint."
Light Heal: 1x HR
Imedren came jogging over to the group. His eyes glowing a deep blue from a powerful divination spell. "The villagers in the nearby houses are either locked away or... what did I just miss?" he asked, reading the dark mood of the group.
"We're going to stop the Long Mother. Come along," Uruuna replies to her husband as she checks the strap on her shield.
Dramm leads the way into the town hall. The building is seemingly abandoned, but a hidden door provides access to the cellar. You can hear a deep voice intoning a chant in High Archaic coming from below.
In the cellar, a large altar occupies the center of the room. Six children kneel at equidistant points around the altar, forming a hexagonal shape. Their bodies are withered and drawn, becoming more emaciated by the second. A seventh child lays on the altar--Flint and Cynthia's boy. His body seems to be stretching and elongating, his face halfway between a human's and the muzzle of a wolf. Elder Thomassan stands behind him, chanting and channeling the power of the ritual.
His eyes are wide and crazed as he stares at you. "Dramm Hayle! The prodigal son returns just in time to witness the next coming of the Long! The Children were not enough to protect Brace from the orcs and their machine of death! We need our Mother! It won't be much longer now... Prostate yourselves before her glory and be blessed, or stand in her way and be annihilated!"
Joy disappears as she hurls a bolt of witch fire at the raving madman, eager to silence him and stop him!
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Dramm is holding his dagger in one hand and the glass cage in the other when he enters the cellar. He could feel the Mother's presence growing, and it scratched inside his mind with voices he could not quite make out. He steeled himself, and entered the room with the altar that had set all of this in motion.
Thomassan had been a faithful servant of the Long Mother his entire life. Dramm now wielded the same knife that Thomassan had used to cut off his fingers and offer them to the Mother. Thomassan had been there when Dramm's soul was tainted forever.
I was right. The summoning is turning the boy into her! That means her essence connects to him. I can KILL her! Everything else seems to fall away. There is only the Thomassan, the Mother, and Dramm. Ezra had made Dramm the key to the ritual, and he knew this was a moment of vulnerability. He knew what to do.
"The Mother is a monster, and she dies here, Thomassan!" Dramm roars! He holds the cage before him and his tattoos flare with power. He begins an incantation, drawing on the essence possessing the Flood boy. Dramm begins his exorcism, mixing the incantation with the one written in Elvish on the glass prison.
You can't hide any longer. It's time to end this.
The obsession pulls at Dramm, his focus narrows to a pin point. He must kill the Long Mother! His tattoos flare and magic begins to lash out, but Dramm's obsession takes over and he does not move.
Then something flashes in his mind. A face, only for a moment. Ezekia's face. Suddenly he realizes what is about to happen. He forces the magic to obey him.
I won't be the one to kill children.
"I think we'll have to pass on both accounts." Imedren says with a dubious look at the obvious madman.
A familiar cube of silver mercury light appeared and out stepped the Elder Imedren once again.
The chaotic power was too much and Imedren could not keep it contained.
Taking a moment to shake his head and orient himself to the situation, "Eldren" sighs.
"Perhaps I'll just appear attacking with magic next time."
Unlike his younger self, the older Imedren was just barely able to hold his chaotic burst of energy in check.
Sel, still holding his bow from when he shot the fleeing orc, draws it back and looses an arrow at the insane child-sacrificing man.
Imedren conjures his elder self, who delays Elder Thomassan. Joy burns him with witch fire and Selgaer stabs him, causing him to bleed. The elder manages to dodge Uruuna's scimitar, and while he is badly wounded, he still lives.
"Mother take your sight!" he snarls, casting forbidden magic at Selgaer. Luckily, the faun resists the spell.
Selgaer's eyes burn as the madman tries to use his wicked magic on them; such magicks only confirm in his mind how dangerous it all is.
Bloody hell, my eyes! he calls out, rubbing them with his forearm. With a snarl on his face, he draws back another arrow and fires it at the man.
Joy is focused, though the madman's magics nearly interfere with the witch fire circling to strike him in the back.
Nearly.
Elder Thomassan dodges the witch fire. Selgaer's arrow whizzes past his head--but then, unseen to all but Imedren, time rewinds and the faun fires again! This time, the arrow thuds into the Elmer's forehead. His eyes roll up into his head and he falls, blood pouring from the fatal wound.
The Flood boy howls and thrashes as Dramm continues his exorcism. It's only a matter of time to see if he will be successful...
Joy lets the witch fire expire and rushes to the nearest child, eager to help them get away!
So frail! But at least I can move maybe one of them myself!
"We need to get them out of here! Dramm is trying to save the poor possessed boy!"
Dramm's moment of distraction is all it takes. With his will weak, The Long Mother seizes the opportunity and her essence leaves the boy screaming on the altar. Dramm feels the corrupting influence enter him like a disease, like a stain that withers his soul.
Always so easy to manipulate, Dramm. Let me show you what you were meant to be.
Dramm watches helplessly as his body moves without him. He carves a sigil into the air, and then turns around. Joy is looking up at him, lifting an emaciated child in her arms.
"Dramm? Is something wrong? How can I he-" Dramm screams as Joy's flesh unravels, torn apart by destruction magic. She dies instantly, and Dramm dies with her.
"Sweet music." His body says, turning to the others.
===========
Dramm continues the incantation, reasserting his will. The Mother had tried to turn the spell upon him in his moment of weakness, but something feels familiar about her assault. He pushes the odd sensation from his mind and redoubles his efforts to contain the Mother. The cage is held above the Flood child, and Dramm taps it with the tips of his dagger as he chants his spell. It lets out a melodic ring with each strike, like a well made tuning fork. He can feel the ringing plucking the magic around him. Dramm's spell reaches a crescendo!
He places the point of the dagger on the boy's chest and focuses his will. He hopes it is enough.
The boy's screams reach a crescendo, and his back arches as dark smoke pours from his mouth. His features return to normal as he slumps across the altar, unconscious but alive.
Floating above the altar is a spirit of darkness and starvation. Inside the shifting darkness that constitutes her body floats a translucent white face, twisted by madness, its eyes wide and its mouth agape. It has a vaguely lupine cast, and beneath it you catch glimpses of an emaciated feminine body with six withered teats. "Dramm!" hisses the Long Mother as she begins to gather her wits...
Sel dropped his bow when the arrow entered the humans brain and ran to help the children. Despite his larger size, he was still gentle and carried only one at a time, but his quick speed allowed him to dart in and out of the building at a rapid pace.
As Dramm completed his exorcism spell, the growth potion finally wore off and Sel shrunk back down to normal size. He unsheathed his spear and took up a place near Dramm, wary of any who would dare oppose the saving of this child.
Then, she came. She rise up out of the darkness and and called for Dramm's name.
Years of training has prepared Sel for battles like this. Years of mentally fortifying his mind, of pressing forward despite the fear. Years of honing his body.
Iii sseee yoouu, Sel whispered with a devious smile.
Ignoring the pain from the cannon shot, he set off in a blur of motion. Sel darted up onto the corner of the alter, using it at a spring board to launch himself into the air at the demoness, his spear slicing through her as he landed on the other side several yards away.
The Long Mother was finally before him and he felt the pale face pulling at his sanity. The spell had taken a toll, but he would not be bent by fear after coming so far!
"She is vulnerable. She can die! Slay her!" Dramm's shout is half crazed in desperation, but he stands ready to fight!
The Mother gives Joy a gift. A gift of a vision, of a present where she - and Dramm - are shredded to pieces.
Joy screams, the cry of a creature driven close to breaking point.
She launches witch fire at the mockery of maternity, tears ruining her vision even as she disappears.
Imedren let out a sharp breath as he quickly sidestepped the timelines to a more favorable result.
but there was a brief moment of destabilization as he himself was being pulled into two different directions, somehow he managed to focus and stay within one.
The focus of will nearly cost him, however. Despite his understanding of dark powers, his frayed timeline with his other self and the necklace he wore, were being overwhelmed by the Long Mothers multiple presences in his mind. Had it not been for his lingering third sight, he would have fallen to a hungering despair.
"The Boy, someone get the boy out of here!"
Flickering in and out of space rapidly and seeing the others reacting as they were already, Eldren shakes his head.
Uruuna, don't worry I'll get the boy out of the way, you deal with that thing." with that he ran up to the boy and picked him up off the table before turning and rushing back the out of the room.
Uruuna resists the Long Mother's horrific appearance, but fails to strike her.
Joy misses with her witch fire, but Selgaer scores a good hit, eliciting a howl of pain from the Mother. Imedren manages to delay her while Eldren snatches up the Flood boy and rushes him to safety.
"Dramm Hayle... You were so close to the final act... The taking of your own life," the Long Mother growls. Just being near her, you can feel your bodies start to waste away. "Even the orc attack was an opportunity... The foolish elder was desperate enough to call me here... But even weakened as I am by the loss of my flock, I am still strong enough to devour you whole myself! The same goes for you, Selgaer the faun, and all of your little friends. I will swallow your souls!"
Suddenly breaking free of the slow effect, the Long Mother lets loose a horrible wail. You feel a powerful force tearing at your bodies, threatening to waste you away in an instant. She then pounces on Selgaer, her claws ripping at his flesh!
Sel reels as the wail overwhelms him, nearly rearing his soul out! Then the Long Mother pounces. The first claw knocks him unconscious. The second kills him.
In her upset, Joy took a step back. Enough unwittingly to keep her safe from the Long Mother's hunger.
But the wail, she hears.
But her resolve is strained, not broken. She clears her eyes and wills the fire to strike! The Mother's will holds the fire back for now.
Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the Mother strike:
"Sel!"
Uruuna cries out in agony as the howl drains her vitality and unhinges her mind. Despite the pain, she is too brave to shy away from danger. She lunges at the Long Mother, scimitar flashing!
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Imedren resisted the howl of starvation and in that moment his visions flared. He watched the others struggled against it in their own way and Selgaer was immediately torn apart by the long mother.
The thought of being rid of the Faun danced through his mind but he saw the Long Mother would immediately turn her attention to Uruuna. So he decided to interfere and began counting in his head.
When a creature within medium range that you can see would take damage or gain an affliction, you can use a triggered action to cast this spell. You mark in your mind the exact moment when this event occurred, and then your future self from a few moments ahead in time travels back to just before the event to deliver a warning to the triggering creature. The creature reduces the damage it would have taken to 0 or removes the affliction it would have gained. At the end of each round thereafter, you must make a Will challenge roll with 1 bane. On a failure, you transport yourself back in time to deliver the warning, disappearing and reappearing in the space you occupied 1 round later, which ends the spell. If you become incapacitated before you can deliver the warning, you and the triggering creature
each gain 1d6 Insanity as time momentarily unravels.
Imedren appeared beside Selgaer, in a flash of mercurial light.
"Selgaer, gather your will and guard your ears, the Long Mother will unleash a horrid shriek and is coming for you!"
Chaotic energies wound their way around Imedren causing his curse magics against the long Mother to reach out with crushing power.
Imedren found that he was able to hold onto and control them from bursting out.
"Hit her! Hit her with everything now!"
Even as he rode the waves of chaotic energies, they finally crashed back down on him causing his focus to falter on exactly when it was he'd jumped back in time to save Selgaer... his body began to suffuse with silver light until he finally vanished in time to save the Faun.
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Dramm withstands the force of the howl, but Selgaer is violently rent by the Mother's claws! Dramm is quick to try and reinvigorate his ally!
Dramm injects fresh life into the Faun.
"Up, up! Not here, Selgaer! Not for me!" Dramm shouts at him!
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Carefully setting down the child he was carrying, a moment later Eldren noticed his own body began to glow with silver and he felt himself being pulled through time.
No. It's too soon... what is he doing?!
He turned and hurried back into the room. Upon seeing the mess of chaotic power surrounding his younger self, Eldren understood immediately as he focused on the scene in front of him.
"You hate him, but you save him... I don't understand you at all."
In those last moments before being pulled to another time he nodded to the others. Then he too was suffused with silver light and vanished in time.
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The Long Mother wails and - with frightening speed - lashes out at Sel ripping him apart. His life fades before his eyes as his soul sinks into the Underworld. But then it stops, hovering just outside of his body. He watched from his disembodied soul the Long Mother standing above his dead body.
And then time rewinds. Flesh seals back up as claws pull out of his chest. The Long Mother reverse jumps back to her original location. The sound waves generated from her wail return to her lungs.
And his soul re-enters his body.
Imedren yells out, "Selgaer, gather your will and guard your ears, the Long Mother will unleash a horrid shriek and is coming for you!"
Instantly, Sel follows the instructions and covers his ears as the Long Mother wails, protecting him from her screech. His body tenses as he already knows what is coming next; she leaps at him digging in class at his flesh. But this time, instead of dying, Dramm releases healing magic into the air and restores the wounds.
The flesh sews back together and Selgaer stares defiantly into the Long Mother's eye. We do not stand alone, witch. For too long you have pretend upon individuals who weaken without support. But we stand together. This is what it is like for mortals - we fight together and we are strong together.
He jabs his spear into her and leaps back, retreating out of her immediate range and preparing a defense. His second chance makes him a little more cautious.
The Long Mother reels from your assault, Imedren's curse of pain exacerbating the injuries from Selgaer's spear, Uruuna's sword, and Eldren's missiles. Imedren and Eldren suddenly disappear into the past, just as the Long Mother overcomes the dazing affliction,
"You stand together? You will die together!" she roars, swooping down at Selgaer and ripping into him again! He dodges one claw attack, but the other two find purchase.
Joy's cry seemed to have helped.
The witch tries again, trying to get a hold of her own fraying feelings.
"You won't get to swallow any more souls! It's over! It's all over for you!", she calls, feeling it more as she does.
The fear is still there but Joy can feel its grasp faltering.
But not quite gone.
"You enslaved my home! You made my family your puppets! You poisoned our souls forever!"
Selgaer nimbly leaps away, but Dramm stays close long enough to carve out the advanced arcane sign of powerful destruction magic. The flesh on his arm unravels in parts as he blasts it forward. His accusations rise to a fever pitch above the battle.
"YOU KILLED EZRA! I'LL RIP YOU FROM THIS WORLD!"
Dramm's wild anger manifests, and arcane energy bursts from his outstretched hand before him.
"YOU DON'T DESERVE TO EXIST!"
Sel reeled from the attack, but he stayed strong in both body and mind. Deciding not to taunt her more, he simply focused on his form. He spun the spear around and whipped the spear tip across the shadows.
He jumped away slightly too soon, and the spear's end just barely missed, but it gave the distraction he needed to get away.
Uruuna takes an opportunity to catch her breath before slicing into the Long Mother again. Selgaer leaps away, moving halfway up the stairs to put distance between himself and the monstrous faerie. Dramm stands his ground, blasting the Mother with a powerful destruction spell that rends her spectral form! Her countenance is twisted and half-disintegrated, but still she lives. Even the blast of sorcery is not enough to finish her off.
As Imedren and Eldren reappear, the Long Mother roars! "DRAMM! IF I AM TO DIE, THEN SO SHALL YOU!" She drifts effortlessly past Uruuna and charges at Dramm. There is a sparkle of confounding fey magic from the invisible Joy, and the Mother's first attack scrapes against the sorcerer's armor. That likely saves Dramm's life, as she rips into him twice immediately thereafter, blood spraying across the room as he falls to the floor! Despite the gruesome injuries, he still draws breath--for now.
Dramm! Sel calls out, rushing forward. He pushes as fast as he can in a full charge, slicing through the Long Mother and ending up somewhere on the other side of her.
Uruuna rushes forward, slicing through the Long Mother's tattered form. Selgaer charges back at top speed, leaping over the halfling and driving his spear into the Mother's black heart! She lets loose a gut-wrenching wail as the faun slides across the floor on the other side of her.
"No! NOOO! I will not die to mere mortals... This... This isn't over!" she shrieks, but it is clear that she is done for. The darkness surrounding her bony body fades away into wisps of smoke, and with a strangled sigh, a pile of brittle bones clatters to the floor, topped by a wolf's skull. Silence reigns in the unholy chapel.
It would seem you have won...
Dramm's face is twisted into a vicious snarl as the magic erupts. Then the Long Mother bursts through the swirling flames. Joy's magic causes the the Mother's claws to scrape across Dramm's armor, but she grabs hold and plunges her other hand deep into his gut, dropping him to the ground. As his consciousness fades, Dramm smiles at the monster above him.
It's done. She'll die now. The others will kill her. I'm sorry, Ezekia, I promised I'd always come back...
The world goes black.
Yes! She's done! Oh no, Dramm!
Still on edge, Joy sees the Mother and Dramm fall.
He needs help now!
She doesn't fiddle with berries. The witch pulls out her healing potion, runs over to Dramm, yanks out the cork, and pours the contents down his throat.