Thorun tears his eyes from Daire. Still an illusion...still not real... He slightly alters his walking path, moving to put his hulking frame between Daire and the goddess.
Daire realises that his companions are acting a little differently.
The enchantment! I must be ready!
Daire tries to manoeuvre himself subtly to make good use of Thorun and the local vegetation to hide the passing of Lir's sword.
The rejuvenated hag stops. Incredulously, she stares at Daire for a moment. Then, she looks at her own hands that suddenly belie her true age, and her heart breaks.
"My love?" she stammers. She turns to her companions and, seeing in their eyes a mix of fear and pity, her sadness turns to fury. The winds around her pick up and in the distance a storm brews...
"For what it is worth, I am sorry." Aoife said honestly before she moved and grabbed Sister Cobhlaith. She moved the sister back and put herself between the wrathful goddess and the holy woman. "We needed the sword but we didn't want to fight you for it... there has been enough death."
Aoife's words seem only to further infuriate the Cailleach. The winds grow stronger and lighting strikes in the near distance...
Sister Cobhlaith reaches her hands out to the Cailleach with love in her eyes.
"Sister, love does not depend on our frail human vases. Love knows no age. No matter what form you wear, *you* are still beloved and able to return that love. Come with us to find Lir, wherever he may have gone. "
It is time to pay the bard., Daire thinks with the bleakest of humour.
He stops, and turns to face the hag, hearing the Sister's offer.
His eyes hold sympathy and not a little regret, and he realises that words from him would only fan the flames of her justified rage.
It is in God's hands now.
Under normal circumstances, Sister Cobhlaith's plea might have proved convincing. But the spurned goddess will not hear reason and stares at them all with mighty fury.
While Aoife prepares to interpose herself between the Cailleach and Sister Cobhlaith, Daire assesses the situation. Sword in hand, Thorun soon understands that the goddess will not be assuaged or parlayed...
I do not want her looking at me like that.
Daire does not try to hide the muttered incantation that follows - or his vanishing.
Thorun spares one look at the others, then takes a deep breath. Not the worst way to go out. He gives a full throated roar and charges the goddess, bringing the legendary weapon to bear!
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For the longest time, Ruadhan has fought the feelings within him. He knew what Daire would become and what he would perceive and yet here stands Aine returned to him. As logic and love warred within him, he several times bwgan to speak, only for his voice to crack with longing. Tears ran down the side of his face for a while until he cuffed them away, and it was all he could do to follow his wife without doing anything that his brain said would give them away. As the goddess spoke to Aine seeing somebody else, Ruadhan almost broke his silence to question her foolishness in not seeing Aine, and he had to bite his lip hard enough to draw blood in order to stop himself, attributing it to the fey of this place. Then as the potion began to fail, the charm failed and Ruadhan just felt hugely embarrassed and bereft once again, staying silent as he fought his emotions and the goddess began to rage the others trying to calm her.
Finally as Thorun charges, Ruadhan hardens himself despite the tears openly running down his face now, and calls out as he walks forward. "Lady, please stand down, I beg you. I understand your pain, for my wife left never to return, crossing the veil of death which I could not easily follow. I saw my beloved as you saw yours and I thought she was real despite knowing otherwise. Knowing this do you think we would have done this without absolute need? We will return it to your keeping when our need is ended, if you will please stand down. But if not, then i will not let you hurt my friends."
As Ruadhan approaches, he readies his sword and shield, his hands tightening on the leather wrapped grips until the leather practically bites into them.
None of their soothing words succeed in calming the fury of the goddess and when Thorun rushes to attack her with her husband's sword, she condemns them, "Unworthy humans! Always lying and cheating!"
When Thorun swings the mighty Sword of light, she screeches. And when he misses, she cackles and shouts, "Give me back my husband's sword!"
The wind carries her a few feet up and away from Thorun, and then the big man is caught in a gust of wind that throws him to the ground.
Thorun quickly stands up, stepping over to get adjacent to the goddess again. "No wind can stop me!" He roars and goes for a faster swing.
I must act, she will wreak slaughter among the others if I don't.
With heavy heart, Daire walk up behind the goddess while still unseen - and reaches for her foot.
"I said do not hurt them!"
Charging forward, next to Thorun, Ruadhan lashes out and lands a minor cut
Sister Cobhlaith looks with horror as the Cailleach rises in the air, and the wind buffets the party.
We are going to need the strength of our God to protect us from this ancient one.
"Omnia beneficia Dei in nobis"
Right... can't let her get off the ground.
Aoife took and chance and ran strait for the Cailleach, grabbing at the fey creature to try and keep her grounded.
The Cailleach screeches when Thorun cuts her with the Sword of Light but pays no heed to Ruadhan's blade, which fails to penetrate her preternaturally tough skin. Seeing herself surrounded by her enemies, the hag flies straight up into the storm that is brewing above, and calls down upon them a bolt of lightning, which strikes Thorun first and then arcs to shock them all.
As the Caileach rises, Cobhlaith reaches out to grab her feet
Missing, she feels the lightening bolt scorch through her body.
Thorun swings at nothing but air and eats the electrical attack to the face. He reels back for a moment, but he has taken worse hits. He roars and suddenly flies up at the goddess, legendary blade seeming to part the air itself as it cuts towards her!
Aoife also followed Cobhlaith in trying to pull the Fey back down to the ground.
"Why?" the old hag groans as the Sword of Light bites deep into her flesh. She seems surprised that the sword would turn against her – but it is a weapon of war and one would more easily expect the sun to fade than to ask Claíomh Solais to not draw blood.
For a moment, seeing the goddess bleed, Thorun imagines the battle already won. Then, he sees her deep wounds heal and realizes with horror that he may yet die this day.
The tempest grows stronger and Thorun knows that soon, even with the legendary sword, his flight will inevitably fail and he will fall. Looking upon her foe with fury, the hag calls forth a forceful wind that knocks the breath out of him...
Looking up at Thorun engaged in a fierce and bloody battle with the hag, Aoife, Ruadhan, Daire and Sister Cobhlaith cannot but fear that there is little that they can do but watch...
Thorun would have normally been felled from the magical onslaught, but this place, dire and unworldly as it is, empowers him and he stays strong. He continues to roar as he strikes again, a mortal man daring to challenge the might of a god.
Aoife jumped out of the way of the large bolt only to be struck by a lesser one. But that was luck, and Aoife would roll with that for now.
"We have nothing we can do to help him... Thought I felt useless before..." Aoife muttered.
Ruadhan swings wildly, but misses the rapidly moving goddess, before her bolt comes lashing down. Evading the larger part it still clips him. Stuck on the ground he desperately tried to hurl his javelin at the crone, but the storm winds foil his throw.
Daire begins to sing.
He sings of Lir, and his beauty and prowess. And how he wielded the Sword of Light to cut down his foes.
It has to hurt. It has to distract her. And drive Thorun to take advantage.
As a swift action, you can expend one use of mythic power to rally your allies. This gives you and each of your allies within 30 feet the option to reroll any one d20 roll after the roll is made. The granted reroll must be used before the beginning of your next turn, and the creature must take the result of the reroll, even if it is lower.
Whenever you use bardic performance to inspire courage, the competence bonus against charm and fear effects instead applies to all saving throws. If you expend one use of mythic power when you start a bardic performance to inspire courage, you add your tier to this bonus.
Thorun fights for his life while his companions watch below. Never has he felt so alone and never have his companions felt so helpless. Still, despite the thunder and the violent winds, Thorun hears Daire's voice rallying him to fight on...
He looks up at the Cailleach with rage in his eyes, and prepares himself to suffer the brunt of her attack. The winds continues to batter him left and right... and then lightning strikes!
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Thorun knows he is a resilient man who can take a beating, but the terrible otherworldly onslaught on him is being curbed by forces beyond his knowledge. But in his state of mind, all of that was forgotten. There was only the figure before him hurling pain, and him responding with vicious strikes. He would cut down the wind, he would strike through the lightning itself. Thorun gives a blood-curdling roar unlike anything he has done before, the crackling lightning mixing with his voice to form a sound no man could make. But even as he struck, his skin continues to burn and flake away.
Seeing the mortal unwilling to concede, the hag seems perturbed and increasingly desperate to end the fight. She is bruised and bleeding, but nevertheless continues her assault. Lightning strikes once more!
As Thorun fights for them all Aoife begins to removed the little that weights her down. Bags, armor, everything save her clothes gets dropped at her feet. "Ruadhán, I need a favor. If Thorun lets go of that blade, he could start to fall... can you throw me?" She asked. "It might not work but, maybe just maybe... he might survive the fall."
"I'm not sure that would work, even if I could throw you, and she would get the blade whilst we did that. I will try and slow or break his fall, you get the blade and be ready to fight. I think that is all we can do for now."
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Thorun's body is in shambles. Flesh is burned and ripped open and he looks more like a walking corpse than a man. But that fury, the undying anger in his eyes, it smolders deeper than his mortal body. He grins, blood running over his teeth and into his beard. "Do you fear death, goddess?!"
The hag balks when she sees Thorun still facing her against all the odds and still menacing her, sword in hand. She hesitates for a moment, wondering if she should simply escape. The storm is calming and her power is waning. But her fury will not be denied and, admittedly, her foe is faltering. Battered and bloodied, she continues her assault... Gathering lighting around her, she lashes Thorun with whips of electricity.
Shaken by Thorun's intimidating glare, she misses with her first attack despite calling upon her own mythic power. However, she strikes true with her second attack!
The blade pierces Thorun, and he stops. He almost seems as if he is going to fall, then grabs onto her arm. He tries to chuckle, but blood fills his mouth. He slides off the blade, plummeting to the ground.
Aoife, Daire, Ruadhan and Sister Cobhlaith can only watch as Thorun plummets from the heavens and hits the ground hard. Broken bones in a pool of blood. Wild eyes and clenched fists.
"Thorun!" Sister Cobhlaith screams, running to him and calling forth the light of God. Kneeling, she looks up at her companions, unsure, uncertain and fearful.
The Sword of Light is at Thorun's side, beckoning another hero to attempt what was failed by the strongest among them...
"THORUN!!" Aoife shouted as the man hit the group. With Sister Cobhlaith swiftly at his side, Aoife looked from the unconscious form of her friend to those still moving. This wasn't going to stop, unless someone made it stop.
She had been saved from death more than once... so maybe she could test those limits again. Opening her hand to reach out for the sword she found it flying to her hand. "Take care of Thorun." She requested. "Get him out of here, else that lightning could do more damage... You all came to my rescue more than once, now it is time I return the favor." Aoife told her friends. Finally Aoife held the sword aloft in hopes it would take her up as it had Thorun.