"I'm doing fine, thank you for asking... Yes I did have quite the adventure!.. No, no lasting damage... A scar or two I'm sure... How about you, have you opened up a second shop yet?.. How's the magic going, anything totally wicked?.. Im has some cool time stuff goin' on I think..."
With a blank stare, he continues.
"You know as much as I do, son. Just got to town a couple hours ago... it's good to see you, both of you!"
"If Moore house is not a lead, then we will need assistance. Whatever ritual Katandramus is engaging in must be done somewhere. Magic like this requires proper preparation, time, and location. Caribdus might know more about magic of this scale. We should visit the wizard's tower. He could narrow down our search for Katandramus."
"Unless Imedren has something up his sleeve, Caribdus is our best bet for doing this quickly!"
”Just the one shop still. I learned some new tricks, though—I’ll show you later, Dad,” Nutmeg says with a toothy grin.
You start heading to Purse once more towards Wizard’s Peak, home of Caribdus. It is nearly midnight as you reach the edge of the district, and you can hear a few faint noises in the distance that sound like muffled explosions. A few minutes later, a thunderous, deafening noise sounds out from above Crossings! All of the windows and other glass objects within sight immediately shatter, and your ears ring with echoes of the sound.
A crimson light then appears around Wizard’s Peak, and across the city, the six faerie spires emit a white-hot light that turns night to day. Each blazing spire looses a ribbon of light that drifts toward a point in the sky 600 yards above the city. When the ribbons meet, they form an undulating mass of vibrant color.
”The Eye! Katandramus has begun the ritual!” Lucretia hisses.
"That sorts that! To Wizard's Peak!"
As they run for Wizard's Peak, the old man tries to pry information from Dramm."This wizard, Caribdus, how well do you know him? Would he consort with demons?" Shen's voice is flat, not betraying much emotion.
Imedren looked grim at the prospect of siding with Lucretia, but he had to admit it was better than fighting her.
"I'm not certain divination magic without knowing much else is going to be useful. My magic is limited, best used to narrow down possibilities over time. Even the Oracular's powers would only be truly useful if Katandramus was in a very distinguishable location...
I don't know to what extent his insanity truly rules him, but if I were Katandramus I wouldn't be binding myself to any one location until it was time for the ritual to occur."
He furrowed his brow in thought. "I agree with Dramm. Caribdus should have a better idea on how something of this scale would work and if he can point us in the right direction, then we stand a much better chance of discerning the cult's location."
Imedren watched in something akin to awe as the six faerie spires lit up and night turned to day. A terrible sense of foreboding grew within him as his gaze drifted back to Wizard's Peak.
"Of course... preparation, time, and location. A wizard's tower, this is exactly the sort of place a ritual of that nature should take place. I should have suspected it would be a likely target."
He glanced over at Shen, giving a biting remark. "Caribdus is neither a cultist nor is he a demonologist! Listen to our surroundings, there's clearly a fight taking place inside, we need to hurry to Wizard's Peak."
This is no time to hold back. the thought wormed its way to the forefront of his mind. He let out a sigh and raised his hand. A familiar portal of mercurial silver formed and out stepped Eldren.
The older looking man stepped up to the group and stopped for a moment staring up at the sky.
"Of course." he said with an exasperated sigh. "Of course it couldn't be somewhere close to the ground!" Then after a moment he turned to face Joy.
"Joy, I'm going to need your help. I may have a spell that can actually stop or at least delay what is about to happen here. Even with my teleportation magic I can't get close enough to the rift... but you can fly." he said with something nearing a smirking grin.
Joy takes a look at the rift then to Eldren - and Imedren.
"Absolutely!"
She draws nature's power into her broom and it rises above the ground.
"Hop on board, Eldren! Let's do this!"
Dramm shakes his head at Shen.
"Caribdus is reliable, gave me access to his library and helped to defend the city during a Hag's assault. I don't believe he is involved in the ritual or he would not have been so willing to assist us before. His books are the reason I have grown."
Dramm's brow furrows when they approach the doors of the tower. He reaches to his side and produces his casting dagger. He hesitates, then extends it to Shen.
"Take this. It's been reforged with Viridium. I... I believe you will make better use of it than I can. It will react violently with Fey and demons. If we have any preparations, we should make them now."
Once the preparations are complete, Dramm pushes open the doors to the tower.
"I owe Caribdus a favor. Katandramus will suffer if he has deprived me of fulfilling my debt."
Yes, that is the reason he should suffer. Not the kidnapping or the torture or the murders or trying to literally destroy the world - but preventing Dramm from fulfilling a debt. I see we have our priorities straight, Sel says with a wry smile.
Shen's eyebrows furrow as he hears Dramm and Imedren's response. "In my experience, rituals are not a quick process. The wizard has likely already fled, in best of cases. In worst, the cultist may have killed him and taken his place, right under our noses.
The elderly warrior gently takes the dagger Dramm offers him, testing its balance in his hands. "Very well, I'll put it to good use."
With the help of his friends - yes, even TaBog - Sel manages to read two incantations. It's the first bit of magic he's ever used, and a bit of an admission that maybe he was wrong and Imedren was right. Magic can be helpful and useful. But he still wanted it used with caution.
Sel's tawny skin hardens and cracks, turning tree-like as bark forms across his body and thorny vines spread out.
I'm ready, but I'm still hurt. Dramm, can you heal me? And be ready with that regeneration spell. I'm going to need it.
"Of course," Eldren said, nodding to the enthusiastic young girl and awkwardly climbing onto her broom.
He glanced down at the rest of the group as they prepared to move. "We'll go keep the portal from opening, the rest of you need to hurry and stop Katandramus directly, or else he'll be able to do this again. Joy and I will catch up to you as soon as we can."
After a moment of thought, he reached into his bag and pulled out an adjustable leather arm strap with two healing potions and tossed them to Selgear. "Here, since you insist on running into melee take these." Then after a moment he tossed one a single potion to Shen. "You as well, catch!"
"Joy, let's go!" he said looking back upward towards the rift forming within the sky.
Sel catches the potions, one after the other, and immediately downs one of them. Thanks, he says to the wierd time-altered version of Imedrem.
Eldren and Joy fly up high above the city, where the beams from the faerie spires converge. The time-traveling sorcerer intones a powerful spell, enacting a broad region of dimensional stability that encompasses the undulating mass of color in the sky. It won't prevent the ritual from taking effect, but it will certainly delay it--hopefully long enough for you to stop Katandramus!
The magic does not go unnoticed, however. A blot of darkness appears in the center of the colorful mass, heralding the arrival of the Void, and from within the darkness, a massive, baleful red eye glares angrily at Eldren and Joy. They may very well pay for their temporary victory with the loss of their sanity!
The counterspell takes only a short time, allowing Eldren and Joy to catch up with the rest of the group as you race to Wizard's Peak. A welcoming committee awaits you in the courtyard--a force of a dozen cultists, clad in black armor and with swords and shields raised aloft. Lucretia hisses, and her lovely features take on a decidedly monstrous countenance. "My hoods and I will handle these cretins! Get inside the tower!" she snarls. The vampire pounces up on the nearest cultist, ripping him apart with her claws and fangs as the strange dwarfs open fire with their crossbows. You slip through the chaos and enter Caribdus's tower.
The wide foyer features a broad staircase that winds up the tower's interior. Four horrible demons stand guard here. The first resembles a fiendish statue of cracked bronze, with shadows seeping from the rents in its body. The second is a mechanical horror with arms that end in revving chainsaws! The third is an amorphous mass of nerve endings and flayed flesh, sending multicolored sparks out to the other demons which seem to empower them. The fourth and final demon resembles a chitinous insect with thirteen legs and a pair of wickedly sharp pincers! All four demons immediately move to attack!
Joy focuses hard on keeping the broom in the air and then returning, while encouraging Eldren.
"We did it! Let's get back to the others."
****************
Joy sees the demons...and glares at them!
"Get gone, demons! Out of Caribdus' tower and out of this world!"
As she speaks, every loose seed tracked into the nearby parts of the tower suddenly explodes with vigour, a mass of vines rushing for the demons!
"The fleshy blob there is strengthening them, focus on that one!" Shen says as he draw his blades. The undead man lunges forward to attack, striking at the creature he called out.
The old man begins his gruesome work, but has difficulty getting through the creature's tough hide. Longer blades would most likely be better suited for such work, but there was no time to acquire one.
The sight of these strange beings was not was Sel was expecting when he stormed the building. Magic. Monsters. Wizards. Yes. Mechanical brings made of machines and nerves was overpowering to his mind, despite everything he's witnessed so far.
Demons. Every f%*$ing time they caught him off guard. They were just such an antithesis to the natural world. He was visibly shaking as he tried to stand his ground. He backed up against a pillar. Ok, this is it, he thought to himself before he downed one more potion. Everything slowed as the magic took effect. With immense speed, the faun pulled an arrow and fires at the nervy one. Sel was used to moving fast, but this was another level. The strain was already starting to eat at him.
Four greater demons in one location. No doubt Katandramus infected reality itself by their mere presence. Dramm was begrudgingly impressed by the cult's ability to maintain control over such a wide host at once.
Dramm sneered angrily at them as Selgaer ducked by him to cover. His fingertips were already aglow and an incantation on his lips. With a touch of his fingertips to the Fauns back, five tendrils of green energy pierced Selgaer's shoulder and wove into the flesh. The familiar writhing sensation crawls over Selgaer's skin, mending wounds quickly.
"Tear them to pieces. You wont fall while I stand." Dramm snarls in a voice dripping with hatred and disgust.
Dramm holds his magic back, redirecting and swirling the power through himself. His tattoos begin to glow more brightly.
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Eldren stared into the void as he cast his spell to hold back the tear threatening their world. It was among the most powerful teleportation magic's his younger self, and therefore he, had ever researched. It seemed to be working, the edges of reality halted in cracking any further... but the energies did not stop. Two sides, two wills pressed against his salve, separating the realities. Magic which his research had concluded should last for days was being torn asunder.
Then from within the void an eye was staring back at him.
It was more than the aged Wizard could take, despite his preparations and knowledge he began feeling the malice of the Eye upon him, driving him to recall his insecurities and past failures, pushing him into insanity!
But the constant calming assurances of the young, ever enthusiastic girl Joy, shook him out of his reverie and gave him the strength he needed to hold on.
*** *** *** *** ***
G- get out of our world! Eldren said, nearly succumbing to the demon's influence... but not in this time.
Tabog brings up the rear of the group, letting off arrows at cultists busy looking at someone other than him.
The demons’ sudden and intensely grotesque forms stun Tabog and his flight instincts cause him to bound behind the nearest cover!
Imedren watched as his other self flew into the sky with Joy to deal with the portal. He was certain his future self's decision of tossing out a pair of healing potions to Selgaer was meant to annoy him, as well as some sort of aged wisdom he didn't quite yet understand. Though he didn't entirely know which.
With a shake of his head he left with the others. His mind was trying to focus more for the task ahead, the headache he now had as an influx of possible visions with his other self made him not want to waste precious time. There were last minute preparations to make so he began casting spells.
He was glad momentarily as their decision to side with Lucretia was seemingly, for the moment, paying off. Two fights now they had avoided dealing by managing to negotiate with her. Katandramus was scheming but thankfully not much of a leader. Caring only about the end result could leave a great many flaws in one's campaign to end the world.
As they entered into the tower foyer and saw their first set of guardians, Imedren's spirits fell. The four demons meant that Katandramus had gone far more insane than he'd thought. But after a moment, he seemed to recover. His older self began casting spells, pulling him back to the moment. His perception of time growing faster than most. It was at that moment though, he decided to alter time himself.
"When I give the signal next, just do as I say!"
As he cast the spell a wide, translucent, sphere of mercurial magic encircled the entire group before mostly fading away. Only he, as well as his older self, was still able to move within the sphere.
"Now, let's see how this works."
Uruuna resists the demons' horrifying appearance and fires arrows at them!
Joy's spell lashes the demons, but they are immune to being immobilized. As Tabog dives for cover, Dramm bolsters Selgaer and the faun drinks a potion. Shen charges in, slicing several of the fleshy demon's nerve endings off. Uruuna scores hits on three of the fiends.
Eldren accelerates himself and Imedren, and the latter creates a bubble of halted time that encompasses the party and two of the demons! That leaves the sorcerers' selves outside the bubble along with the nerve demon and the crawler demon.
Both launch further spells. The fireball and missiles damage the demons a bit, but both are still fighting strong!
The demons rush forward to try to get to the sorcerers, but are surprised when the time barrier blocks them from getting inside! They shriek and teleport back to the staircase. It seems like they are preparing to retreat until the spell expires!
Imedren's and Eldren's spells blast the nerve demon apart, and it explodes into gory chunks of bloody tissue! The crawler demon hisses as one of the sorcerer's missiles strikes it, then it quickly skitters up the stairs and out of sight.
Reserving his magic for now, Imedren lets the time bubble stretch out for a few more precious seconds before allowing it to end. Reality hastens to catch those within the bubble up to the real timeline, and Selgaer surges forward to stab the mechanical demon. The bronze demon lashes out with its fists, catching Shen in the chest. The mechanical demon slices into both Shen and Selgaer with its chaos-infused chainsaw, which not only rends their flesh but also spreads darkness within their souls as well!
Joy is momentarily offput by the sudden jerk of movement but quickly realises the signs of time magic.
Besides, there are demons to fight! Joy vanishes as she launches witch fire at the bronze demon to stop it hurting her friends even more.
"Fiddlesticks!", Joy's voice comes from nowhere as the witch fire is easily repelled by the demon, "I'll try again!"
RETCON:
Selgaer hangs back, firing an arrow into the demon. The enemies focus on the nearest threat, and while the bronzed fiend pummels Shen, he manages to avoid the revving chainsaw.
Trying to think pleasant thoughts while demonic chaos whirls around him, Tabog recalls his band of orcs lying at the base of a cliff, far from this terrible place. He smiles at the memory of convincing them all to jump to their deaths, like classically misconstrued lemmings.
He knocks an arrow and waits for an opening he can use to maximize the demon's pain.
Mr.Reed takes the creature's heavy strike with a grunt of pain, he'd definitely feel that later. Readying his blades, the older man darts between the demons, attacking each of them in turn.
His blades find little purchase on the bronzed one's metallic skin, though he cut it dozens of times. The machinated one however, suffered more severely.
With the time magic taking affect at the exact moment Sel drinks his potion, he is unaware of the effects and assumes it's all a part of the strange fae magic. However, things are a bit confusing when he sees that his initial target has already been splattered across the room. He quickly changes focus and fires on the mechanical demon.
Immediately he draws another arrow, even as his hands shake. *Twang!* *Twang!* Two more shots at the mechanoid!
Uruuna fires several arrows but only manages to wound the bronze demon once.
Selgaer's arrows plink harmlessly off the mechanical demon's armored body. Joy's witch fire fails to hit as well. As Tabog takes aim at his chosen prey, Shen slices into both of the demons around him.
The demons retaliate against the revenant. The bronzed demon scores a glancing blow, but the mechanical demon's strike does significant more damge, its accursed chainsaw slicing through Shen's flesh and rending his soul as well!
Sel draws two more arrows and fires into the chainsaw mechanical being - such a weird sight!
His hands are shaking so much that his first shot goes wide, nearly clipping Shen before sticking to the back wall. Sel pauses to take a deep breath and tries to recoup his senses. I need to get over this, he thinks to himself.
Suddenly the two of the demons simply vanished. A quick look around confirms that at least one of them had been explosively dealt with. His questions would have to wait. The others redouble their efforts and Dramm assists by unleashing a violent rending on the Bronze demon.
"Move away!" Dramm shouts a desperate warning.
His magic grows to be too much, and the arcane energies tear free in a violent explosion. Dramm does his best to direct the energy away from allies and toward his enemies, but the close confines of the tower prove dangerous.
The revenant was starting to buckle under the pressure put his way. The true damage though was to his soul. He could feel a blackness take root and start infecting his thoughts, driving him into a bitter anger.
With a desperate scream, Mr. Reed focused his attention upon the Metallic foe, hoping to destroy it before his soul would be further tainted.
Joy focuses, eager to see these demons fall! The witch fire suddenly zips back towards the bronze demon and this time strikes!
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Shen stabs the mechanical demon twice, causing caustic oil to leak from its numerous wounds. Uruuna shoots it twice, and it collapses in a heap of twisted metal.
Selgaer shoots at the bronze demon but fails to hit it. Imedren hits it with a pain spell, while Eldren follows up with a sorcerous blast. Joy scorches it with witch fire, then Tabog takes it down with a well-placed arrow!
The crawler demon appears in the air above Imedren, lashing out with its sharp legs! His magic defenses hold, protecting him from harm. Imedren falls back and hits it with a sorcerous blast, but Eldren’s blast misses. Selgaer’s second arrow falls short as well.
Dramm’s sorcerous power pours forth in an outburst that engulfs Uruuna and Selgaer!
Shen's furious outcry pulls Dramm's attention. The older man is perilously close to another end. Dramm intones a chant and rushes to place a warmly glowing hand on Shen's shoulder.
The tattoos gently glow once more.
Hey! Watch it! Sel yells at Dramm, narrowly avoiding the release of magical energy.
But upon seeing Dramm rush in to help Mr. Reed, Sel drops his bow and grabs his spear, rushing in to fight the chainsaw wielding mechanoid-demon-thing head on. He leaps at it, slashing with his spear as he flies past and keeps on running. Then turns back and does it again. Come on, a&~@+$!! Come and get me! the faun yells as he runs circles around the mechanoid.
Tabog takes his opening when the demon's guard is down: threading his arrow, like a needle, through a fissure in the statue's face that ran the length of its jaw!
The shadows seeping from inside the bronze demon escape with sudden urgency, leaving it slumped on the ground as a dull husk of its previous self.
Joy concentrates, trying to protect the others as best she can - by helping to burn away this demon!
Unfortunately, its defenses hold!
Try as he might, Imedren could no longer hold back the outburst of chaotic energies swirling about him.
"Here! Use this and try not to die again!"
With all but one demon slain, Shen focuses for one more push to bring the fight to an end.
With deadly accuracy, the knife fighter threw both of his daggers at the remaining demon, his knives biting into the centipede like a snake. Swiftly downing the potion the strange time clone gave him earlier, it seems as if the elderly fighter has made almost a complete recovery.