15th Nymm, 999 YK
- They rest, after determining there are no more preperations they need to make.
- Oh, they do replenish their rations though.
16th Nymm, 999 YK
- They get ready to leave, meeting up with Imane Graht and Pine in the dragonhawk eyrie, where they are introduced to their transport for this journey: Zephyr and Tempest. The dragonhawks have specialised saddles (Zephyr having an even more special saddle to accomodate Imane's disability). Each saddle has two seats, as well as two straps with clips on the sides for people to hang off of.
- Oh boy.
- There is another issue, Zaphkiel is too big. Naze Nol will have to unsummon them.
- "It's okay we'll walk"
- Naze is told to unmanifest Zaphkiel.
- Warren and Bhaltair hang off of the side of Zephyr, with Runmae on the back. Valaari on the side of Tempest, with Naze on the back.
- Bhaltair hangs off the side, using their spyglass to examine their surroundings. They keep seeing vrocks tailing them, but keeping their distance.
- Suddenly, all hell breaks loose as a hulking demon just materialises in front of Zephyr, already mid-swing with their axe.
- Valaari reflexively lets out a startling battle cry that somehow critically frightens the demon
- and then Naze nukes it with a critical hit from a Holy Light
- as Runmae smacks it in the face with her hammer
- The demon falls to the ground, having the worst day it's had in a while.
- A barbazu teleports onto Zephyr and attacks Pine, but Valaari blocks it
- Valaari exploits vulnerability, learning all of the barbazu's weaknesses and also that their weapons cause infernal wounds, which bleed and resist healing.
- Another barbazu appears on Tempest and attacks Runmae, causing a lingering infernal wound
- The vrocks approach, but Bhaltair blasts one of them with a vision of its own death.
- The dragonhawks begin doing barrel rolls to try and dislodge the barbazu, but they hold onto the feathers
- Naze blasts a hole through one of the barbazu, killing it
- Runmae shoves the other one off of Zephyr, causing them to fall to their death
- The Nycaloth then reappears on a nearby cliff and throws their greataxe at Zephyr, bringing the bird to the ground. Pine uses Gentle Landing to prevent them all from taking damage.
- The nycaloth then teleports down to them and hits Zephyr again.
- Imane unhooks Runmae from the saddle to let her fight the demon, and then takes to the sky again
- Runmae smashes the Nycaloths head in. The worst day of its life over
- The dragonhawks begin mauling the vrocks, with Valaari throwing their spear.
- Warren leaps onto one of the vrocks, but as the group surround it, it just flies off with him.
- He stabs it repeatedly until it dies, dropping both of them from the sky. Warren hits the ground like a sack of bricks and then just gets up, fine.
- Bhaltair heals everyone up with their Garden of Healing spell, as Runmae loots the Nycaloth's axe but fails to identify the magic on it.
- Bhaltair, Naze and Valaari all identify it though. It has a Shifting rune, allowing the weapon to transform into any other weapon of the same size! Very cool
- Runmae is definitely going to transfer that rune
- They loot the barbazu's, taking their glaives.
- Bhaltair and Valaari harvest the vrock corpses, and Runmae transfers the shifting rune to her hammer while they do that. They take the greataxe, putting it on a saddle, to either sell or transfer the runes later
- They continue their flight, landing atop the Labyrinth to sleep. Naze summons Zaphkiel the moment he's on the ground.
- They sleep, and during Runmae's watch, she gets possessed by an Invidiak
- Warren and Valaari also get possessed, but not controlled. The demons are just hitching a ride.
- A demon attempted to possess Naze, but failed.
- Their Brands of the Binding Flame burn them, alerting them to the threat.
- Valaari tells them what this means, that something has tried to possess them.
- Naze uses Detect Magic to identify who has been possessed. The group lack a strong enough Dispel Magic to counteract the possession, so their only choice is to deal enough damage to force out the demons.
- Runmae (possessed) flees, the demon deciding to just take her somewhere else. They try to restrain her, eventually with Zephyr grabbing her and pinning her down whilst they attack her to exorcise the demon.
- They proceed to beat the everloving shit out of each other, whilst Naze begs them to stop because he can use spirit damage that won't damage the host at all!
- Valaari takes note of how much glee they all take in pummeling them. They will remember this. Warren especially.
- Those who were possessed are all beaten within an inch of their life before their demons are exorcised, with Warren having to be held back from stabbing himself as he'd go down before the demon left. Naze finally convinced him to stop hurting himself, so that Naze can just blast the demon directly with spirit damage.
- They then have to spend time tending to their wounds, both physical and emotional. Bhaltair summons the Soothing Spring, which helps.
- Valaari doesn't go back to sleep after this encounter.
17th Nymm, 999 YK
- They wake up and get ready for another day of travel. Valaari is fatigued due to lack of sleep.
- Valaari is also quieter than usual, upset with the others over the unnecessary violence, and the glee taken in enacting it.