Session 38: Saviors

Lost in the Second Age...
16 hours, 20 minutes left


Understandings
Coming off a six hour rest, the group felt refreshed (at least in body). Prayers and spells were replenished. They were ready as they'd ever be. The sky was the blue of pre-dawn and so much was yet to be done.

During the respite, Diana and Kaylan prayed together. It was always known Diana was a follower of Kalinda, but she'd very little idea how to properly express her faith. Kaylan showed her some of the ropes, speaking a slow prayer the Saspish girl could follow. Afterward, the girls had a chance to talk. An understanding was reached, where-in both girls discovered they were unreasonably affected by the other. Kaylan didn't hate the sorceress and Diana wasn't out to make the cleric look inferior. The buddings of a real friendship began to develop, but as much as the girls wanted to chat, the whole End of Days thing compelled them toward other conversations: namely what to do next.

Everyone wanted to deal with the rift in city square, where the Saviors fought a host of demons. If they could enlist their idolized predecessors, the party would surely make the Anubian deadline. Before they could depart, however, Portia spotted Elewoon's nimbus approaching. She was coming back from depositing the bard survivors in a safer district.

We Won't Just Lay Down and Die
Looking as radiant as ever, the gold elf invoker took in the destruction around Nightingale Tower and rued all the pain and ruin. Relic postulated that if they managed to seal all the rifts within the Anubian time frame, all of this would never have happened, and the tower would be restored, as would its bards. How wonderful that would be.

She bid the group wait a moment, suggesting help was coming, but Kaylan was eager to strike back out on the path. That's when a familiar voice insisted. It was Lord Loradan, dressed in green-and-gold leathers and armed with a wand and a sword. He was followed by a hundred Scepter Guard, masked in a silence spell, outfitted in the same silvery armor and scepters as the watchmen Diana summoned the night before. Their forces were supplemented by red-robed Sorcerers of the Bat and white-robed Wizards of the Moth. In the time the group has rested, the lord mayor managed to mobilize what city troops he could.

Loradan walked right up to Kaylan and apologized for his wretchedness back at the tower. Elewoon watched with a stern look, agreeing with Loradan's every harsh label of his cowardly actions. Kaylan coldly asked if he wasn't referring to his poor performance in bed, taking the elf aback. None the less, he swallowed his pride and his wounded feelings, pledging the one-hundred and himself.

The group accepted Loradan's offer, charging the Spelltowerns to clear out the Dwinalea Docks and Cloud Street Opera House (after some debate where best to utilize them). Diana was adamant about not facing the vampires, that much was clear. The mayor and Elewoon agreed to each lead a contingent, and more over promised those rifts would be ready and waiting to be closed before the deadline.

Loradan moved off, determined, though dejected, toward the opera. Elewoon implored Kaylan not too be too cross with the man. She hadn't seen him so enlivened in a long time. Kaylan had thought the elf regretted sleeping with her, but, quite the contrary, Elewoon assured her that she was what inspired him to overcome his fears and act worthy of the title Lord Mayor. The invoker also dropped a strange comment, saying Kaylan was almost like family now. Could Loradan and Elewoon be related?

Before she left, Vilthanos took Elewoon by the arm and advised not taking on the feladrin in the Academy. He was going to try and convince them to help with the rifts, leaving Elewoon rather worried. "If you think that wise...", she whispered.

Strolling the South Park
The group continued on to city square, approaching from the south. They passed into a park filled with roses and elms, benches and fountains. During the walk, Diana asked Relic if he'd decided on a form to take with his new magic hat. He was considering a human, or perhaps a tall elf. Diana couldn't help but wonder as to the extent of the change from metal to man, if it would be actual flesh or an illusion. The robot's innocence was again his social undoing when he asked Diana, and maybe Kaylan, to try out his new form and see, suggesting something much more sexual than intended. Diana rejected the idea in a huff, leaving the warforged a little dumbfounded. Kriznob chuckled quietly.

City Scare
Crashes, roars and explosions of light and magic preempted the party's arrival. They'd been here before, but the square was hardly recognizable. All around sprawled the corpses of innocent and unsuspecting Spelltowerns. The parks were in disarray, the beautiful statuary ruined, the cobblestone bloody and burnt, and the faces the the nearest ring of towers clawed-at and crumbling.

The party crept a little closer and watched the majority of the Saviors (Tasha, Sev, Victoria, Finduilas, Matthias and Serren) fighting for their lives against demons that looked beyond even their abilities. Four of them were huge, hulking abominations with grotesque amounts of muscle, reminiscent of the minotaur from Mangletooth, but instead of bulls' heads they'd bison heads, pierced with dozens of rings and spikes. The others were cyclopean pillars of slime that would sporadically take on feminine, elven shapes.

The temporal rift manifested directly on top of the circular teleportation platform, the same sort of tear in reality as the Nightingale rift, with the infinite Void spanning its innards. The interaction between the rift and the circle caused strange dimensional pockets of vibrant, violet light to manifest around the battlefield. Diana was able to identify the light as wild portals linking one to the other in random sequences.

Ritual Madness
Kaylan noticed western, northern and eastern ritual circles scrawled in blood on the streets. A hooded cultist stood by each, babbling nonstop. Their stoking of the evil elements produced a jeweled, red energy that glittered as an aura around the demons and seemed to empower them. From the struggle the Saviors were having, these rituals would have to be nixed if there was any hope of victory.

Unfortunately, the eastern and western cultist were guarded by two, hulking gorilla demons each, what the learned called bar-lgura. They kept vigilant watch of any who might interrupt the joint ritual. And reaching the northern cultist would require navigating through the larger battle.

While Portia and Selja stealthily moved for the eastern circle, influenced perhaps by the fact Sev fought close to there, Relic and Kaylan moved to the west. Unfortunately, the machine man was many things, quiet not being one of them. His movements drew the bar-lgura's attentions with savage howls and they bounded over the street and leaped the park fences in single bounds. Soon a desperate fight ensued, Relic, Kaylan and Diana against the western bar-lgura.

Vilthanos thought to travel the wild portals in efforts to get closer to the isolated northern cultist. As luck would have it, the portal did just that. But the wicked supplicant saw him coming and tore off his hood, revealing a mutated face covered in mouths. Each of them babbled demonic prayers, turning their focus from the ritual to the feladrin. In unhallow harmony, they roared a curse which left the elf stunned and stumbling. For his efforts, the northern ritual circle darkened and the aura around the demons diminished by a third. Vilthanos fled back through the wild portal, but chance was not so forgiving this time around. He materialized right before the two eastern bar-lgura, sending them into a rage.

Vilthanos proved proper distraction, allowing Portia to spring a surprise attack on the eastern cultist. The rogue, suspecting an easy kill, was surprised to find the cultist hardy and difficult to hit. Soon she was flanked by a gorilla demon and an abyssal servant, and taking a beating besides. All the while, the eastern cultist cursed the race of boggarts. "I HATE boggarts!", he cried through one of many mouths. But at least he'd stopped chanting, further weakening the ritual.

Darkest Hour
It looked grim as the Saviors' energy continued to wane, while their insults, harsh banter and tempers flared. Was this how the legends always acted together? History had glazed over much of the pettiness, arrogance, ruthlessness and savagery.

The party could barely withstand their own enemies. Relic was brutalized by demonic fists, requiring Kaylan's healing every minute or so. Then the cleric was targeted, brought to the cusp of death with only the warforged's sigils to fend off oblivion. Diana aided as she could, but they were running out of time. Between punches, Relic ordered the sorceress to disrupt the western and northern cultist, the latter who had begun to chant once more.

Vilthanos avoided the bar-lgura's attack and sought to harrying the other away from Portia. Selja, in a new show of power, summoned up Nature's Defender, a powerful wood wose, to help her sister fend. The end result were two hulking beasts taking turns swinging at the elf, one occasionally knocking him nearly-senseless, while Portia contended with the cultist in all his maddening glory.

Diana surprised the western cultist with a chaos bolt, drawing his efforts away from the ritual. The cultist became suddenly infatuated with her lips, wanting to peel them off and keep them. That was more than enough to send Diana through one of the wild portals, chance favoring her leap and bringing her within striking distance of the northern cultist.

The ritual was reaching its creshendo, the babbling of the lone northern cultist enough to wash the time rift red and summon a frigid wind. "Come mother," he beckoned, answered by a pleased coo in the Void. A fire was lit underneath Diana and she unleashed her cosmic fury, interrupting the last of the evil ceremony. With no one to sustain the ritual, the bloody circles lost their glow and the demon auras vanished.

Victorious
In little time, the Saviors gained the upper hand. One by one their enemies fell, even as they wondered at the origin of the children who had helped them, and the location of this mysterious city they were in. There was even a bit of conversation across the battlefield, wherein Kaylan defended Finduilas from the vicious digs of Victoria, and Diana slipped that she knew Victoria's daughter. Kaylan was as surprised as Victoria.

Portia was able to finish off the cultist, then turn around and dig the heart out of a bar-lgura with her shovel. Thamior beheaded the other. Selja tried to reach Diana as she was cornered by the surviving babblers, but Victoria's finger of death spared the girl. The little wizuid spun on her heals in hopes of saving Kaylan, on her last leg against the demons, but Relic managed to expend the very last ounce of his strength and dispatch the monstrosities. Selja might have pouted then, but she was too happy everyone was alive, and that she could see her papa.

Meeting the Myths
With the demonic forces decimated, the group flocked to their respective favorites. Diana and Victoria convened away from the rift (Strangeheart was mildly acting up again), speaking in the animated Saspish tongue. Kaylan and Finduilas likewise met, the former filled with awe, while Portia and Selja crept closer and closer to an unsuspecting Sev.

Vilthanos looked impatient, knowing his own mythic predecessor awaited elsewhere. Relic forwent the pleasantries and made some desperately needed repairs to his demon-battered body. Tasha and Matthias hung in the back, not sure what to make of all this, while Serren admired the warforged from afar, uttering a signature, "Fascinating..."

Experience: 466 xp each (14,557 total)
Magic: None
Money: 1700 gp (283 gp each)
Loot: Lesser Demon Blood (see below, Diana), 2 bar-lgura tusks (Portia)

New NPCs
Young Finduilas, a young raptoran woman with a fiery temper and the makings of a powerful sun templar, destined to become the high priest of Kalinda; took a shine to Kaylan
Young Sev, an unassuming goblin with the ability to turn into a giant sloth and alter his anatomy as he sees fit! Destined to become the greatest of the Archdruids, as well as Portia and Selja's father
Young Tasha, a bold, brazen dwarf lass with a particularly golden axe; destined to become the Redbeard rebel leader; once possessed by Falst and Blight; this version, and her present incarnation, both still hope to reclaim Citadel
Young Victoria, an undead in a human illusion; cruel, arrogant, and with a taste for destruction, she often chides Finduilas and fashions everyone inferior; destined to become queen of Saspien; took a shine to Diana
Third Age Serren, the Azerbadi mage hasn't aged a day over a thousand years after Spelltower, though he seems decidedly darker and less social; destined to become Prelate of Hell
Sorcerers of the Bat, red-robed sorcerers of the Tower of the Bat who heeded Loradan's call in a bid to retake the city
Wizards of the Moth, white-robed wizards of the Tower of the Moth who heeded Loradan's call in a bid to retake the city

New Monsters: bar-lgura, babbling cultists, goristros, yochlols, nature's defender

Current Quest: Time Storm (1/9 rifts sealed; 2 rifts being cleared)

Lesser Demon Blood (1 water skin = 4 uses): When ingested, lesser demon blood offers variable resistance 5 until the end of the encounter. The first damage type you are hit with (bar normal melee damage) after imbibing the blood is the damage you are resistant to. A drinker can only benefit from the blood once per encounter.