Exhausted from the heavy toil of redirecting the power of the Bloodstones, Max centers himself with a quick recovery mantra. He then looks for where Hellqueen covered Sandstone with lava. Seeing a glimmer of hope, the mage proclaims, "Be bound by the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak!"
Red bands snake out from the glowing symbols around his gesticulating hands and plunge into the lava trying to pull the former soldier from the Maw.
Eoten's heavy brow furrows at Max's actions;
The brute digs his iron nailed hands deep into the blackened rock, tearing a mighty chunk away with a wide grin;
Gracie
Cesarina
Oz
The Crimson Bands wrap around Sandstone, but his arcane might isn't strong enough to pull overpower the primordial power of the Maw.
Eoten's blackened rock sails wide, plunking into the lava, sending up a splash.
Gracie feels the transformed, now-white light surging into her. Trusting Max's magic, as well as the fact that she believes power is less inherently good or evil than what one chooses to do with it, she allows it in, drawing it through her body into the blade in her hand.
She points the blindingly bright Calesvol at HellQueen as she hovers closer to the lava, propelling a magic-disrupting beam.
The light of Calesvol, empowered by the loosed power of the Bloodstones and focused by Gracie's will, shreds the magic holding HellQueen aloft. The succubus infused woman gasps in shock as she drops into the hungry lava below.
Eoten's heavy brow furrows as his volcanic rock missile flies high, wide and handsome.
When HellQueen drops into the Maw, the brute bellows a warning;
Cesarina
Oz
Oz lets out a demonic roar of his own as he disperses the fiends.
The harming orb flashes a calming green and pulses a wave of restoration.
"Reborn how?" Gracie calls back to Eoten. "Like a baby reborn or like, as a demonic monster?"
A bubble swells in the lava as gas is expelled from the volcano. Or, perhaps, the Maw burps.
Overhead, the demons scream as they are drawn into, or perhaps dissolve into, the ash clouds overhead. It takes a few moments, but they are gone.
Something is keeping Sandstone together, though.
Eoten turns to answer Gracie;
As the lava gouts, the giant halts - broad nose wrinkling and heavy brow furrowing;
"Aye, the Hellqueen, Fathom and Sylph appear gone. Consumed by the Maw." Max replies.
"Help me save Sandstone! She's not gone yet!" He then targets Sandstone again, "Be bound by the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak!"
Cesarina tries to add her power to Eldritch, manifesting a faint golden bubble around Sandstone and trying to pull her out.
"Aye, the Hellqueen, Fathom and Sylph appear gone. Consumed by the Maw." Max replies.
"Help me save Sandstone! She's not gone yet!" He then targets Sandstone again, "Be bound by the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak!"
[dice=Move Object 8 (6 tons), Precise, Affects Insubstantial 2]1d20+12
Cesarina tries to add her power to Eldritch, manifesting a faint golden bubble around Sandstone and trying to pull her out.
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The transformed, purified power of the bloodstone still flows through Grace. She feels tenfold the bond Calesvol has with her, more to the point--the Bloodstones help her see inside herself: the fey threads that compose the magic behind Calesvol, stitched into her body and soul, where object, magic, and flesh become one. She is the container for the sword. She is, itself, its scabbard.
And the scabbard, as Merlin was once quoted as saying, is worth ten...
She lifts the blade, holding the power inside her and channels it through her, directing what was lent to her back to Max. An iridescent light emits from the blade--bright as usual but somehow softened at the edges so as not to be blinding--flooding into Max to grant him extra strength to save the woman so unfairly treated by the world and by HellQueen.
Eoten merely holds, unsure why his companions would risk so much to save the stonewoman from Vhoka's Maw;
"A friend. That is more than reason enough." There are other reasons of course, but Grace doesn't have time to elaborate at the moment and needs to concentrate on focusing the sword.
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Caesarina wraps the woman in solidified Holy Light, the light of creation, pushing away the ravenous molten stone and magic of the Maw of Vhoka.
Eldritch, aspirant to the title of Master Mage, calls forth the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak, wrapping them around the light construct and pulling.
The Crimson Bands throb as another magic, scintillating with colors, wraps around them, strengthening them, using the might of Vhoka to pull against the might of Vhoka.
And your combined powers, plus something else, something darker, distinctly dry and hot even here within the caldera, win out.
The sphere encapsulating Sandstone launches into the sky, free of the grip of the Maw, and hovers in Max's crimson grip.
Oz skitters back and forth nervously. His form fluctuates between solid and liquid, his head darting in all directions. The feeling of dread still tickles the back of his neck.
"Alex is our friend, Eoten. It's only right that we take care of our own. Is everyone else ok? Here... this should help us." Once again, a portal pulses restorative energies from the Dreaming. It's colorful waves wash over Team Eldritch.
Max maneuvers the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak to set Sandstone of somewhere with stable footing, probably near the caldera. "Got you! Are you alright, Alex?"
He studies her closely for any tinge of the HellQueen demon who could have hitched a ride.
Alex flows out of Cesarina's construct as a half human pile of sand. She pulls herself together, then bends over as if to vomit, still in her sand form. Rather than liquids, she violently vomits sand and a hot blast of dry air.
She draws in a ragged breath, apparently out of habit. "Don't know if I'm alright or not." She pulls her sandy form into something closer to the woman you are used to. "Thank-thank you. It was horrible in there. There was something immense, hungry, trying to tear me apart, tear the power out of me, tear the...me out of me. And then their was something else. Something that was me but not me, something that was with me. It called itself Set, Seth, something like that. And it pushed back against the hunger. Said 'This one is mine, you may not take her.' They didn't seem to agree. And then you ripped me out. But it looks like I'm back to this since HellQueen took my Bloodstone." She looks down at herself.
"Well, at least...'this' is something we can work on helping you with. Perhaps more permanently given enough time. I'm not sure there would be any saving you from the Maw once devoured."
Eoten nods sagely as he listens to Sandstone's words;
Grace relinquishes the energy channeled into her back from whence it came. Or at least she attempts to do so.
Presuming nothing untoward happens, she says, "Alex, I'm glad you're safe. But maybe we should hold off on further talking until we get away from the hungry volcano? Unless there's something else we can do to curb HellQueen's return..." She looks at Max and Cesarina.
After a few minutes of waiting for another shoe drop, Max determines that they actually might have succeeded. "Yes, Alex. We weren't going to let you go."
"Let's regroup at home. C'mon." With that he turns and opens a portal to the Nexus. Max closes the portal behind him as the last one through the portal.
Cesarina frowns.
"It seems...too easy. I thought the Maw was supposed to reforge the things it devours into something more terrible? Was it simply a myth?"
Eoten joins Cesarina in a frown as he shoots a backwards look at the ominous volcano;
He shrugs, then jabs a thick thumb towards his barrel chest;
"We still have one Bloodstone. But I am afraid that if we bind it to Alex she'll be a target again for the next servant of Vhoka who comes along. And as you noted there is an aspect of him bound to you and the Professor, Eoten." She looks at Eoten. "But no, I am not keen on bannanning him, Eoten. Binding I reckon. Summon. For that reason. At least not at the moment. Not to mention he did try to kill all of us."
"And we don't know what others are out there, or if HellQueen will return." She sighs, downcast. "I didn't know if we could save Alex unless we stopped HellQueen first. And I didn't know how else to do it. I'm not easy with killing anyone. I may have made things even worse than that. But I'll be ready if she returns. We'll have to do."
Max listens to both knight and giant. After a comfortable pause, "I think it is unlikely someone will make a play for the Bloodstones again, because most of them have been absorbed by the Maw. The HellQueen pursued them, because they significantly augmented her power."
"I think we should bind the Bloodstone to Alex. If our reasons were strong enough before, we should do it again. The HellQueen's machinations were not her fault. My biggest concern was that the HellQueen's demonic possession hitched a ride in Alex and potentially dominate her later. But, I don't detect anything demonic on Alex, just Alex."
"Remember, Alex just wants to be able to become human again. Vhoka took that from her the first time. The HellQueen took it from her again. I think she's been through enough."
"Cesarina, what do you think?"
"And Oz, and importantly, Alex."
"I'm not sure it's a good idea, Max. It isn't Vhoka made me like this. And whatever it is was fighting for me in there. This Seth thing. It has plans for me, I think. And I owe it. I mean, you pulled me out, but I wouldn't have even still been myself. I think if you try to use Vhoka's blood to give me a body again, we will have a fight on our hands."
"As you wish, Alex. Ultimately, it is your decision. So, it's settled about the Bloodstone."
"Can you tell us more? Is there anything that we can do to help you?"
"We still will find a way to help you, Alex. Right, Max? Grace? We can do it, I know we can figure it out... we just defeated the HellQueen! We have to be able to help you out Alex."
"I do imagine it will be a less daunting task than chasing a Hell-tinged sorceress and her cronies to the ends of the Earth and beyond." Cesarina says, with some amusement.
"I agree we can try to find another way to help Alex. Alex you said you heard someone called 'Seth' fight for you. So that seems to be the next step. Figure out why it thinks it's yours and go from there. Especially given the whole sand thing, first thing comes to mind is the Egyptian god Set. But Egyptian mythology's not my area of expertise, let alone figuring out how it might be tied to Alex's curse. What do all of you think?"
"Don't know much about that. Never made it much past Hercules and Daedalus when it came to mythology, and that's cause I've fought both of them. I don't guess either of them is the real deal, but this Seth thing seems like the real deal, or at least like some kinda real deal."