Talsil 4th - Talsil 5th
Entering the Dormuds
A vicious battle raged amidst a growing storm, high on the snow-capped Dawnspears, as four imperial dragoons (in truth four red dragons and two surviving riders) burned, ripped and flung the northern party. Thamior and Anita flailed in open air, their impending dooms rushing to meet them, while Gens in phoenix form struggled against crushing dragon jaws. Kaylan scrambled to toward a still, severely-burned Christina sprawled upon the summit, and Tyvis, found himself divided in all directions in efforts to protect his friends and allies.
Tyvis's feywolf Curck tore the rest of the wing off one of the dragons, vanishing back into the Wild at his master's behest, and forcing a dragoon and dragon both to crash out of sight below the cloud cover. After a sickeningly wet crash, neither was seen again. The Archdruid himself urged his eagle into a dive, getting within reach of the plummeting rogue and snagging her outstretched arms by way of his staff, which took the likeness of a roping vine. The beast which had flung Anita off the mountain took to the air after them, ripping the throat from Tyvis's eagle and sending the two humans tumbling onto the nearest cap.
Thamior, through Gens' bardic magic, found his way back onto solid ground, where he stabbed the dragon gnawing the phoenix. Ten-Thousand Winters slipped underneath the dragon's ribs and scratched its very heart, provoking a wail that unleashed Gens.
A very different wail was heard, then, as Kaylan reached Christina. She hugged the girl close, infusing her with all manner of radiant healing, but the child was already gone. Overwhelmed beyond thought, she began to tremble and glow, and the snows nearest her melted. Gens healed Kaylan and took guard of her back, facing dragon and rider with but a sword, but the horrid notion his niece was dead didn't quite sink in until the prophet began to change. She tucked her ward in a cloak, as if she were putting her to bed, and shakily rose. Light and fire continued to radiate from her, bending and widening and taking on the shape of a great bird. Her clothes burned away and her body shined gold then yellow then white hot. Molten tears spilled from her eyes as she lifted several feet of the ground, and everything around her shimmered with heat and burned away to ash (the little girl's body included). Gens back was sunburned, and Thamior was unable to enter the intense heat, even as he rushed toward his wife and the remains of his former child, calling out to an angel of retribution who didn't quite recognize his voice.
She lifted her hand and eight shafts of brilliant light directly of Kalinda pierced the gray of the storm and focused on Gens' opponent. The beams concentrated, narrowed, and became lasers, which sliced dragon and rider both, then continued on to cut cloud cover, and parts of the lower peaks of one of the opposite mountains. The resulting avalanches forced everyone to their knees, and drowned all sound.
Tyvis took advantage of the distraction to enter a dire wolf form, hulking and back with blazing red eyes, then grabbing the dragon who'd crashed them and tearing out its wing. The crimson beast shrieked and fell backward, down the mountain slope toward the avalanche.
The surviving dragon, having watched its rider and wing decimated by these children, wheeled about and slipped beneath the cloud cover, fleeing. Gens gave chase, but couldn't match the larger creature's speed. His mind was racing with thoughts of Tina, that bright little girl now so much dust and char. Tyvis flew off south, the same thoughts in his mind, landing on a far peak and changing into a grim mongrel. There he howled, having failed again as protector.
Thamior again tried to appeal to Kaylan, who fell back to the ground and hugged the pile of ash Christina had become. He took full responsibility for the little girl's coming with them, and blamed also the dragoons, but Kaylan couldn't help but blame herself. She swore to make it right, and opened a doorway to a place of choirs and chimes, of warmth and the sensation of fond memories. Sensing his wife was leaving, Thamior threw himself through the heat barrier, blistering his skin, scorching his armor and hair, and followed after. In a sudden flare, they were gone.
Anita sunk into the snows of the peak, hugging her hat, crying. Gens returned from his pursuit, returning to his half-elven form, and stared numb and dumbfounded where his friend had vanished, and his niece had died. The two of them felt so alone, perhaps for different reasons, and lingered quietly amidst the whipping winds and thunder.
When Tyvis returned, it was with two eagle mounts, storm-gray with lightning-licked beaks and talons. They were less about ceremony, direct and obedient. The Archdruid still had a job to do, jobs really, and collected the two distraught survivors. They headed south, eventually finding a safe wilderness sheltered by half a mountain peak, filled with trees, grasses and wild goats.
Though a peaceful spot, and deemed safe by Archdruid and half-elf both, there was a lot of emotion surging through the party, which had been pent up and obsessed over during the hours of eagle flight. As Tyvis summoned diminutive nature spirits to make camp, he, the three began having it out. Anita's inbred prejudices and shock over the power of the group clashed with Gens still coming to terms with the loss of friends and family, even as Tyvis, in a strangely unique position to sympathize with both an imperial and a Kalindian, picked and chose his arguments throughout.
In the end, Gens stormed off to mourn alone, and eventually Tyvis and Anita were able to strike a rather meaningful conversation. The treasurehunter and would-be-freedom-fighter had a very unique outlook on the empire, stuff old men too ingrained in gain and politics using religion to lord over the people. She believed that Nor was being ignored, and that he wanted elves and the wider masses free, a new liberation, viva la revolution! The establishment had committed many wrongs, among them the Imperial Gulag, and Tyvis shared his father's plight and eventual goals. The two agreed to help one another, and despite such grandiose aims, both were sincere.
Anita tucked herself in for a good sleep, but Tyvis couldn't rest before checking on Gens. The two only scratched the surface of what happened back on the peak, and the loss and mystery wrapped into where Kaylan and Thamior had gone, someplace the Archdruid was certain they could not follow. Tyvis began thinking on family, and with help of Gens, managed his first Sending ritual. He assured his sister he was well, but the overanxious youngster barely managed to fit half her thoughts into her return message before the twenty-five word limit was met. However she was well, and on her way home, and that was more than enough for him to find sleep.
For the bard, however, it would be a wonder if dreams took him at all...
Experience: 1200 xp each (34, 038 total)
Against the Dragoons, 6000
Magic: n/a
Coin: -15 gp (Tyvis, Create Campsite), -50 gp (Tyvis, Sending)
Loot: n/a
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