Ruine tosses a big heal Ashlion's way!
Grelda flies over the dragon and blasts it with a prismatic spray! The red beam burns the creature!
Tasha fails to hurt the creature with her attacks, but Ash lands a critical hit, leaving a bleeding wound!
The dragon roars angrily and attacks Ash again, but only hits with one claw! The toxic fumes from its breath weapon threaten to weaken the half-orc!
Once again Ash is far too powerful for any draconic BO - his own is much mightier!
As her wings beat, keeping her airborne, Tasha continues to stab at the dragon-like creature.
Tasha manages one hit on the dragon, while Ash slices it twice. Grelda's second prismatic spray has no effect as the beast resists the spell. Ruine heals Ash again, just before the monster bites and claws him!
"We could make an act!" Tasha shouts out as she continues to hover and stab at the creature. "The mighty ash and his musical warhammer!"
Tasha and her dancing blade stab the two-headed dragon, then Ash delivers a final mighty blow to finish it off! As it dies, it tries to hit the barbarian with a final curse!
Dragging the dragon's corpse to the base of the statue satisfies the trial's requirements, and you feel the statue's magic settling over you.
After gathering all of the titles from Aroden's statues, you are able to open a portal to the gates of the Verdant Beacon. The Verdant Beacon stands at the highest levels of the mountain called the Weeping Grandfather, proudly overlooking the western reaches of the Isle of Kortos. The tower has roughly the same shape as the other aeon towers, with a three-tiered step pyramid at its top, but it is built on a much larger scale: it stands over 400 feet tall. Unlike the aeon towers, this entire structure seems to have been carved out of a single, massive block of deep-green marble in a feat of deific architecture. Further setting it apart from the other aeon towers is a series of winged-eye decorations. The tower is built along a sharp ridge accessible only from the south; steep drops of hundreds of feet on the east, west, and north faces prevent walking around the tower.
You battle your way through the xulgaths and their reptilian and demonic guardians that throng the tower. Soon enough, you have carved a swath to the upper tiers. No doubt the xulgath's commander, Sarveth Ever-Hunger, and his most powerful lackeys await you at the tower's pinnacle. If you have anything to do before confronting them, now would be the time to do it...
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Ashlion rests his arms for a few moments. The maul he claimed from the titan has proved useful, hammering a way through the very walls of the tower to catch more than one waiting ambush by surprise. He grins at his wife.
"WHEN WE ARE DONE I WILL NEED A LONG MASSAGE." He says with a wink. "BEATING SO MANY OF THESE THINGS IS TIRING WORK!"
"I will gladly massage you if you return the favor, husband," Grelda says with a sly grin. She rubs her belly before passing out magical protections.
The simple door at the top of the spiral staircase opens onto an austere octagonal chamber lit by flaming sconces set in niches along each wall. The floor is a strangely translucent crystal refracting light from both above and below, with a winged eye symbol carved in the center. Four obelisks rise from this floor, tapering to a point just below the ceiling overhead. Candles, golden bowls, eldritch tracings along the floor, burning incense, and other paraphernalia suggest a ritual in progress.
The leader of the xulgaths, Sarvel Ever-Hunger, is here. He is deep in the midst of the lengthy extinction curse ritual, aided by a thoughtmaw xulgath. Two huge vavakia demons stand guard.
Sarvel and his assistant are slow to react, having to pause the ritual in order to deal with you. But the two vavakias move swiftly to defend their masters. The draconic demons step in front of you before exhaling ghostly green flames!
Grelda manages to avoid the worst of both breath weapons! She grits her teeth as she unleashes her enemies' worst fears in their minds!
Tasha dodges out of the way of most of the damage and releases the banshee blade before swooping across on her wings to engage with Sarvel.
Ruine takes the full force of breath weapons. She takes a moment to channel healing energies into all of you!
Ash lands several powerful blows on one of the vavakia demons as he grows to match them in size! The demons retaliate with their powerful tails and ranseurs.
Sarvel triggers the ancient clockwork mechanisms in the ritual chamber. The entire room vibrates as huge stone gears and shafts start to turn, dust sifting down from the ceiling as seams appear in the smooth marble overhead. The seams widen, the entire ceiling dilating to reveal the clear sky above. With a sudden lurch, the translucent stone underfoot begins to rise up through the now roofless chamber and into the cold, open air atop the Kortos Mounts.
Sarvel then casts a spell, creating a glowing tentacle of force that hovers in the air in front of Ash. The barbarian instinctively knows that the tentacle will attack him each time he attacks the xulgath or one of his allies.
The thoughtmaw xulgath beside Sarvel summons a powerful fiend to aid her--a crucidaemon. It stands in the middle of the air in front of Tasha, lashing out with its chained daggers.
Brought up short by the summoned daemon, Tasha eyes narrow before she stabs out with her own blade while directing the banshee blade to attack Sarvel.
As Tasha engages with Sarvel Ever-Hunger, Grelda invokes the most powerful spell she has ever cast. "Let fate decide the winner!" she declares as powerful energy surrounds the tiefling and the xulgath.
Ruine unleashes a burst of sunlight, and while the vavakia evades it, the other foes are slightly scorched. Ash's attacks take down the first of the vavakia demons. He turns to the second one, landing a hit. With each strike, the force tentacle lashes out at him, managing one critical hit!
Tasha moves in to fight Sarvel, but he manages to parry her attacks with his tentacles. Grelda weaves the strands of fate to isolate Tasha and the big boss xulgath!
The vavakia attacks Ashlion again, scoring two hits!
Sarvel lashes out at Tasha with his jaws, spiked gauntlet, and tentacles!
The other xulgath sends her daemon to attack Ash before casting a spell, trying to afflict everybody but Tasha with synesthesia!
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Ashlion throws off the synesthesia and seems almost equally unmoved by the various blows he takes, as they seem to almost bounce off his unstoppable form. He retaliates against the second demon, smashing its unholy flesh apart before turning on the summoned fiend and sending it back to hell as well in a maelstrom of blades and mighty blows!
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Ruine meanwhile prays aloud to Sarenrae, calling on the goddesses divine fire to smite the xulguths!
Ignoring the thoughtmaw's attempt to scramble her senses, Grelda unleashes the power of a spirit song!
As the distractions of the battle around them fade, Tasha gives Sarvel a salute with her rapier and smiles, showing her black teeth. Then with a lightning-fast thrust, the battle continues.
Ignoring the hits from the force tentacle, Ashlion tears into the demon and the daemon, hacking both of the fiends apart with his mighty blows!
Tasha demoralizes Sarvel before stabbing him twice. Her perfect finish only grazes the xulgath, but the banshee blade scores a critical hit!
Sarenrae answers Ruine's prayers with a divine armageddon, smiting the xulgaths with holy energy! Sarvel Ever-Hunger is weak to the holy damage!
Both xulgaths are further wounded by Grelda's spirit song!
The platform rises up further, and now the aeon orbs come into view, gleaming with a brilliant light visible only to those standing on the ritual platform, which continues to drift in a broad circle above the Verdant Beacon, the throneglass platform orbiting the Verdant Beacon just as the aeon orbs orbit their towers.
Sarvel strikes Tasha with his jaws and gauntlet, but she dodges his tentacles.
The thoughtmaw throws a phantasmal killer spell at Ash!
Folding her wings against her body, Tasha tumbles through the air with no more care than if she were in an aerial ballet with Ruinë under the big tent.
Coming out of the roll, she fakes a stab towards Sarvel's leg ...
... but actually follows through to his belly.
The tiefling then reverses position, spinning back through the air to her original position.
After channelling Sarenrae's justice, she targets Ash to heal some of hsi wounds and provide some defensive measures.
Grelda looks up at the hovering aeon orbs. She can feel the reflection of their power, not just on herself, but on Sarvel as well. "We must take the power back from the xulgaths!" she calls, focusing her occult energies on reclaiming the orbs.
She breaks Sarvel's connection with one of the orbs, redirecting the energy as healing for Tasha.
Ash lands a hit on the thoughtmaw, the weapon of judgment following him and striking him once as well. Tasha fails to feint against Sarvel, but she still ends up landing a solid strike! Her second attempt to tumble through his space fails, though, and one of his tentacles lashes out at her, scoring a critical hit!
He follows up with another devastating series of strikes!
The thoughtmaw xulgath steps back and raises a wall of force between herself and Ashlion to try to keep the angry barbarian at bay!
With the nagging worry that her luck may be running out, Tasha continues her aerial maneuvers to try to avoid the worst of the worst while still seeking the key places to put her blade to its best use.
Pivoting from Ash to her lover, Ruinë once more channels divine energy while wrapping a defensive barrier around her.
Grelda hexes the thoughtmaw with a curse of death, setting up Ashlion to deliver the killing blow. The barbarian circles around the wall of force and executes the xulgath with a critical hit! Ruine heals Tasha, who stabs impotently at Sarvel.
Sarvel lands two hits on Tasha, one critical. The defensive power of Ruine's magic prevents it from being worse!
With another spin through the air past the slashing tentacles, Tasha takes a moment to bow a 'Thank You' to Ruinë before spinning and attempting to distract her foe and then stabbing at him once more.
Grelda enlists Ruine's help in removing the aeon orbs' reflections from Sarvel. The two spellcasters combine their efforts to reverse the ritual's effects!
Ash lands a solid blow on Sarvel, sending the xulgath stumbling towards Tasha. The tiefling delivers a perfect strike with her rapier, impaling the xulgath through the throat! He sinks to his knees, clutching at the fatal wound as blood pours forth. With a final groan, he collapses and lies still.
Now that you have defeated Sarvel Ever-Hunger, you can perform the task that brought you here to the Verdant Beacon in the first place: restoring the lifegiving magic that allows the Isle of Kortos to thrive. You can feel a vibrant, almost painful thrum of energy from the resonant reflections you carry while within sight of the aeon orbs, urging you to take action.
Reforging the orbs’ network is an instinctual task. As you gaze upon a given aeon orb, it takes only a few minutes of concentration to transform that orb’s resonant reflection into a magical tether, linking it to the Verdant Beacon. You need only repeat this process once for each aeon orb. As the last tether forms, you feel a tremendous surge of magical power flow through you and along these newly built ley lines. The orbs flare momentarily, but you can tell that, even as the orbs return to their former brightness, their power has increased many times over. A few moments later, the resonant reflections fade from each or you—their energy having been transferred to bolster the newly restored network—and the throneglass platform slowly returns to rest in the Verdant Beacon’s ritual chamber.
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Ash stretches languidly and lets out a loud sigh, as though a great weight has been removed from his broad shoulders.
"THAT WAS A GOOD FIGHT!" He declares happily. "FINE STRIKE RINGMASTER! WE SHOULD CELEBRATE!"
The way he eyes his wife makes it clear how he intends to celebrate too.
"ONCE FINISHED, WE GO HOME?" He asks. "WANT TO SEE TYGRAH AND EVORA AGAIN."
Grelda throws herself into her husband's massive arms. She wraps her arms around his neck and gives him a passionate kiss. "At last, we have completed the quest that was placed upon us. Let us return, now, to our family."
A few weeks later, you at last make it back to the city of Diobel, where the Circus of Wayward Wonders has been thriving. The members of your family welcome you back with open arms. Tygrah and Evora shower Ashlion and Grelda with hugs and kisses, while the other circus performers throng around you to hear the story of your epic victory.
A special letter awaits you upon your return, as well: an official missive from the Radiant Festival organizers inviting the Circus of Wayward Wonders to perform as part of the once-in-a-lifetime celebration in Absalom!
While restoring the aeon orbs’ network has no immediate effects on the Isle of Kortos, the empowered network will become evident over the next year and have even greater effects in the decades to come. The following year’s harvest across the Swardlands and the Isle of Erran is the most bountiful in a century, and only the first of many. The Welt ceases growing, and slowly begins to contract in the years to come, leaving fertile fields in its wake.
The Starstone Isles are safe, but as always, the show must go on!
And the show does, indeed, go on.
Returning to the routine of circus life, some might say that Tasha and her partner, Ruinë, were giving up the excitement of adventuring and heroism for the dust, dirt, and animal waste of the circus. She would declare that she wouldn't have it any other way. This is the life she knows and loves. The roar of the crowd as her lover spirals in the air above. The laughter of children. The cries of the barkers. To her, this is home. And being home with the people that she loves is worth more than any treasure that she could discover.
Speaking of treasures... Upon their return to Absalom, Tasha takes a day to seek out the temple of Iomedae and presents the chief priest with the holy blade, Piereta. Feeling that her time with the sentient weapon is done and it should be in hands that follow the goddess. Her personal magic blade is kept safe in a locked box in the wagon that she shares with her partner just in case she needs it again some day. She continues to carry the blade that the banshee, Ciza, is bound to for her performances.
To Ruinë's disappointment, Tasha holds to her intent of never bearing children herself. That's not to say that children aren't a part of their lives. Seeing as a circus is a magnet for orphans of all ages, there are many young ones in the family that grow up viewing the tiefling and the half-elf as the only mothers they'll know. That's not even counting the plethora of children that Ashlion, Grelda, Tygrah, and Evora produce.
Tasha couldn't wish for a better life than the one under the big top she shares with her family.