As they approach, any doubts are expunged. They look upon the pictographic carvings in the stone's face and know they have found one, another Element Stone. Folas Carna was on to something, despite recklessly throwing them into this situation, he has delivered them to a critical location.
Edward, knowing that Brogmim is nearby, slyly transfers his black wax candles into his Haversack. This way, there can be no unwanted summonings if Brogmim were to steal one. They all discuss how they should approach and ask Brogmim for his thoughts. He talks about it being made of ancient material, a scent of the outerworlds, unlike the party members who all smell disgustingly fresh to Brogmim. They all recall that something has been uttered to activate an Element Stone previously. Knillback Ralinkost uttered an alien sounding language for the Air Stone in Faunar Watchtower before he started to mutate into a Unknown. When they encountered the Death Stone, Edward's Patron Xarturas had spoken through him with a language of the infernal. The party ask if Brogmim can speak his native tongue, but have no pointers on what he should say. He complies and agrees that if it smells of the outer worlds, maybe it responds to the outer worlds.
Brogmim barks a short, sharp phrase, and a soft glow rises through the carved grooves of the stone, it increases in intensity but is accompanied by a concerning rumble. Earth begins to shake beneath the party's feet, and the stone itself swells, morphs, as the carved runes on its face become distorted and then disappear beneath a mass of rising stone. The ground bloats into a giant mound before them and keeps rising further, the earth splits out as huge column like appendages form into a 30ft tall biped, wading through the ground, as if never fully standing. Dust and debris shower in all directions as the mass takes shape, a large growth of crystals forms on its back, the same as were growing around the Element Stone, but more of them now. The creature has a hunched head with hollow eyes and each arm is the size of a castle's tower. It begins to raise its arms above its head, boulder like fists awaiting a quick journey back down. The party, wide eyed, scatter.
Brogmim's tail goes between his legs and he immediately turns himself invisible, Mornington and Edward back up to get away from the lumbering Elemental but Crom and Amarion stay close to face off against the creature. They watch its movements carefully, striking the creature while navigating their footing, the ground is broken in the vicinity where the creatures body emerges, making it difficult to maneuver. The enormous arms descend as the creature's form falls upon them, they attempt to dive out the way but Amarion lacks the same agility shown by Crom as he is flattened under rubble and stone. Crom is only slightly better off as shards of earth fly in all directions, peppering him with projectiles as he hits the ground, rolls, and gets back to his feet. The arms of the creature slowly lift, trails of dust falling from them, and Amarion is revealed beneath, alive but badly wounded.
Mornington can see a glow of colourful light within the crystals on the creature's back, and senses it to possibly be a source of power, or at the very least, a weak spot. He takes a sharp inhale and belts out a high pitched noise on his flute as he casts a Shatter spell centered on the crystals. As the note reaches its pinnacle it cuts off as sharply as it was produced, in its place a cacophonous explosion echoes through the chamber. Several crystals burst in a shower of razor shards, flying in all directions, a scattered jingle can be heard all around as they land. With very little of his own magic to muster, Edward looks down at his magical ring, now stored with a number of spells from Mornington. He calls upon its power and brings forth another Shatter spell, a great bang produces another explosion of fragmented crystal.
Getting back to his feet, Amarion joins Crom in carving out great chunks of stone from the creature's legs and torso. But each time the Elemental brings down its arms, it rains terrible wounds upon the warriors beneath. Mornington and Edward steer away from the creature as it maneuvers within the melee, and expend all spells they can on shattering the crystals on its back. Mornington switches tactics and tries to incapacitate the creature with Hideous Laughter, but to his surprise the spell is absorbed into one of the crystals, shattering that one alone. They were right to aim for the crystals, they defend it from certain magic, much like the spell crystals used by The Gemcutter, the crystals store spells, and this creature is using that to its advantage. The creature descends, its form almost collapsing down towards the ground, as it rejoins the earth beneath it. Moments later the ground rumbles next to both Mornington and Edward, and two small elementals emerge, one for each of them. As these smaller manifestations start to attack the spell casters, Crom and Amarion turn heel to help their companions.Edward calls out to Brogmim, stating that if he is here to help him, he better well help. The small imp emerges from his invisibility as his barbed tail strikes into the elemental that threatens Edward. Caught in one of his rageful onslaughts, Crom manages to drop his Shadow Maul, punch an elemental in fury, before pulling an axe from his back to continue carving stone. The four party members bring down the two smaller elementals and hear a rumbling of earth outside of the light provided by Morningtons lantern. The sound of shifting rubble, then of rushing air, crescendos into a pained cry from Crom as a giant boulder strikes him, shattering into pieces. Another flies toward Amarion who raises his shield in the nick of time, the boulder glancing off his armoured defense. Moments later, two more boulders rush over Edward's head, resulting in him running for cover behind a rocky outcropping within the cavern. Mornington and Brogmim join him, threatened by the incoming projectiles.
The telltale sound of rumbling stone is followed by a looming entity looking over the outcropping, their hiding place revealed. Boulder fists rise up, and just as quickly, are brought down upon the bard, warlock, and imp. A voice of grinding stone sounds out from the elemental, and Amarion is the only one present to understand the primordial language speak one word "pain". All try to dive aside, Mornington and Edward successfully doing so, although still battered by flying debris. On the other hand, Brogmim's cries of panic are sharply cut off, and he is no more, buried beneath a tonne of rubble. Crom and Amarion close the distance as Mornington and Edward do the reverse, creating distance while using the very last of their spells. Two more Shatter spells ring loudly and there are no more crystals left on the creatures back, it now moves with a greater sense of instability. Amarion calls upon his holy book and tries to Command the creature to "yield" in primordial, but it has no effect, and the two forces collide once more.
Crom is snatched by one of the great earthen hands and lifted high above the Elemental's head, restrained. Amarion continues to attack, his sword, Dawn Shard, carving into the softer earth between its rocky protrusions. Crom flexes and forces his way out of the vice like grip, landing on the creatures back, but not for long. As the creature's body lunges forward, he finds himself hurtling toward Amarion as the Elemental's arms are raised once more. Crom and Amarion feel the full weight of the creature fall upon them, grevious wounds received by both. Once the creature rises, Crom does too, stone and dust pouring from his shaking shoulders. But Amarion is not to be seen, he does not stand. Crom quickly digs through the refuge where he last saw his shieldmate. He finds his body and pulls him up, calling out to the others. Mornington, lantern raised, utters his words of healing, to bring the Paladin back to the light.
Amarion wakes, grips his sword tight, and rises. He calls thunderous power upon Dawn Shard, as dark clouds ripple along the blade, the faint sound of distant thunder. The great primordial entity before him is reforming for another attack, and he awaits his moment watching its moves. The mountainous creature descends once more, Amarion steps to the side, raises his glowing sword high and plunges it deep into the Elemental as its mass meets him. A resounding boom rings forth, thunder shaking all earth in the vicinity. Clouds of dust are thrown upward, stone rattles across stone, a rock slide of grinding earth fills the ears. And then, it fades, and quiet finally comes.
The dust parts, and as the lantern light reveals the remains, a sword sticks proudly from the earth, its blade still glowing softly. Floating just above its pommel is a ring of magical glyphs, emitting their own light as they slowly circle the weapon that destroyed the stone. The Elemental Stone gone, the spell is fading as the glyphs slowly part like smoke on the breeze. Edward rushes forward. He sees that he must take note, as this is key to their quest to enter the Inner Sanctum. He feels a rush of power, and realises his Rune Keeper Eyes work for him once more. He absorbs the glyphs, he knows the glyphs, his patron knows the glyphs. His eldritch powers are returned as he feels the arcane energies flowing through him once more.
"Very good Edward... you have done well this day... Very well"
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