Session 140 - Hieracosphinx Kebab
They bring to mind three locations:
A stone table at the highest point of the island
On the north side a cliff of green metal
The centre holds a vast pit containing a void
The party walks across the land in a dream like state.
The Vault
They approach a vast pit engulfing a lot of the ground in front of them. The see a staircase winding down and down and down into a vast dark night sky. Braz throws a hoop down the stairs and it bounces, pinging against the wall and shooting off into thr darkness. Hipofilius was counting up the seconds until the ring hit the bottom but it never came. Fourty counts passed and still Xan stared into the void waiting for the final PING. It felt uncomfortable, like they were closer to the sky and there was no sace between them. After looking for so long Xan adjusted her eyes to stare at the stairs in front of her.
They were not in the void any more. Sand and a bridge in front of them. A sealed door over the bridge. And on the bridge a figure. Similar to the griffins but a feline body and a goats head. A Hieracosphinx.
Braz approaches him, ready to share a snack and conversations.
“Greetings” he bellows. “You want me to taste that? And taste the treasures of the ages in return”
He attacks.
TIeme winds during the battle, bringing fireballs sent minutes ago, to the feet of the Chosen instead of the enemy. Xan finds herself underneath the beast, and with a swift move she stabs upward into its belly. Sand pours out onto her feet and to the ground, catching in her hair. The Chosen step away from the beast as they hear whispers of “We will meet again”
They enter the vault door behind the beast, and in there find a quiver with a set of arrows. Alke holds this and checks:
“Each of the quiver's three compartments connects to an extradimensional space that allows the quiver to hold numerous items while never weighing more than 2 pounds. The shortest compartment can hold up to sixty arrows, bolts, or similar objects. The midsize compartment holds up to eighteen javelins or similar objects. The longest compartment holds up to six long objects, such as bows, quarterstaffs, or spears.You can draw any item the quiver contains as if doing so from a regular quiver or scabbard”
20 arrows of Empyrean slaying - titans and their children
Alke holds it for a while to check its magic before passing it to Xan. She clips it to her hip.
A roar screams out across the island, rocking the vault door shut.
To decide their next visit Alke and Braz play a game of twenty squares, and decide on the cliffs.
The Cliffs
The sand gave way to agreen metal beneath the sand, and in places rises out of the sand, forming an outcrop into the sea. At the edge of the cliff it seems to turn into a platform suspended over the cliffs. At the edge there is a telescope, pointed out to the end. Alke fumbleds with the rocks on the floor and manages to get a small slither, pocketing it. The telescope is made of bronze and stands twenty feet tall.
It points at Mytros, bustling streets and the Great Games stadium standing tall. Hipofiluis looks through the telescope again, seeing a new version of the city, with a colossus of Xan and Braz, and statues around the town with the other people of the Chosen.
Xan pushes her way through and stares at the town. The sky is grey, there’s a fleet in the bay, flags she does not recognise. This place had cables, electricity, satellite dish, a metal siege takes place. The ships fire on the city. It is being destroyed.
Alke peers in and sees the landscape, the mountain, Volkan, but there is no city there. Ruins remain. Humanoid giants wander the ground hunched over the rubble and sift throughit, picking out little artefacts and stare at with no understanding. Another world.
Xan glances again, and a wild vision strikes her and she is incapable of speech. She is unable to process what she sees and loses her speech. As she places her hand on the telescope as if that will protect her from the sight. The party continue their walk away from the cliff, Xan staying close to Theo as they navigate the stone.
The Dinner Party
The Chosen walk up to the stone table. A dozen matching chairs stands in the open. An ogre sized man sits at the head and the humanoids sit in chairs too big for them. Their hair is long and unkept as they all sleep, for what seems to be a long time. Xan pokes one of the humans but there is no response. The ogre sits at the head and is slumped over. One of the humans seem to be well dressed, one of the men is dressed in a black jacket. Another is a halfling with a bow. One wears an amazon uniform and their brown hair flows down. The final humanoid holds a thin sword at their waist, in a triangle shapem with sticks clipped across his chest on his tabard, emblazoned with three feathers tied together at the bottom. Xan turns to the party and tells them they should leave. Hipofilius and Calliope suggest they try to save the figures.
The figures are locked in time and held here, and it is almost impossible to move them.
Alke leans to take the tie off the man and puts it on herself.
A third roar echoes around the island again. This time it shakes the table and small avalanches of stones form from the sides of the mountain. As the party looks out they see nothing coming for them but lights on the ship.
Front he darkness there is a booming voice in all of the Chosen’s periphery, a huge lion with feathered wings and a regal blue robe with a green metal helmet and metal crest. Long flowing hair, a mane and from his head.
THREE TIMES I HAVE ROARED
YOU HAVE REMAINED
I HAVE FOUND YOU
AND NOW I WILL DEVOUR YOU