Previously: Chapter 66: A Feast for Heroes
Return to Swellingstrum
When the party returns back home after attending the banquet following the coronation, Arin has still not returned, so the party decides to do another heroes’ feast in order to prepare themselves to take down Rumblejaw the next morning. As they have just returned from a hearty meal already, they make the heroes feast more of a dessert and light food spread, which the owls and Rod also partake in. Stomachs full, they head to bed, prepared to leave early in the morning.
Dandelion wakes at the break of dawn, and emerges down the stairs, waiting for the others to wake as well, meeting Relic in the living room who doesn’t need sleep. Eventually both Kal and Penny join the others, and they make some breakfast. There is a knock on the door, and Penny opens to find two city guards standing on the porch holding a small crate, saying it is a delivery from Thervan Avalast. Penny recognizes the care package for Tamsyn. She accepts the package and sends the men on their way.
Having prepared as well as they can with the owls safely in the bag of holding just in case, Relic gathers everyone around him, saying a few arcane words, and they all feel the pull from behind their navel, with the room spinning violently, before they suddenly find themselves outside Tamsyn’s door, in the outskirts of the Ruins of Swellingstrum. Dandelion lets out the owls while Relic knocks on the door. Small footsteps can be heard from within, with the little druid happily welcoming the party inside.
Tamsyn is given the care package from the party, who happily puts it on the counter, looking through the array of foods with hungry eyes. Meanwhile, Dandelion draws up the square that she saw when she took a recon on the city, and the party begins to plan their attack. Satisfied with their tactic, Tamsyn leads the party in a short prayer to Phymera and Udall, with Dandelion throwing Faunus into the mix. Tamsyn hopes that they won’t have to give a prayer to Mova, as she doesn’t want anyone to die. She gives a final offer to the party to show them where the theater is without them having to fight Rumblejaw, as she is feeling guilty for “forcing” them to attack her, but the party says that they would take down Rumblejaw no matter what at this point. Tamsyn thanks the party, and gives Relic a short boost by enhancing his endurance.
Dandelion summons a draconic spirit and wild shapes into a giant eagle. Penny activates fly, while Dandelion and the dragon lifts Relic and Kal into the air towards the city, ready to take on the purple worm and finish her reign of terror.
Swellingstrum Showdown
Relic and Kal are placed on a nearby roof, while Penny lands on the roof of the building across the street. Dandelion and the draconic spirit lands alongside Relic and Kal, looking down at the massive purple worm, whose back is exposed, but the head and tail is hidden below ground. Penny pulls out her Wand of Wonders, gets a short nod from the others across the street, and uses it against Rumblejaw.
A streak of lightning burst out from the tip of the wand, striking Rumblejaw in the back. The monstrosity is surprised that anyone could get close to her without her noticing, so the party gets a few seconds before the monstrosity has time to retaliate. Relic fires a spell to test the capabilities of the worm, finding that although the shell looks hard, it doesn’t appear to be resistant to magic, much to the group's relief.
Dandelion descends down in eagle form, striking at the beast with her talons and beak, but finds the hide too tough to penetrate. She tries to fly away, but Rumblejaw has woken up, and her head bursts out from below ground, swallowing Dandelion in one single bite. The draconic spirit flies down to help, finding the hide to be tough against its claws, but its breath weapon works fine. Kal uses her magic to enhance Stormseeker even further, striking at the beast by throwing it, and having it return to her hand instantaneously.
Rumblejaw has woken up, and rises up, before slamming herself into the ground, causing a localized earthquake, which in turn makes the building Relic and Kal stand on collapse beneath their feet. Relic reacts quickly, casting a featherfall at the pair, allowing them to descend without taking any damage. Below them, poisonous gas emerges from cracks, but to no effect as they had a heroes’ feast the night before.
Relic casts another chromatic orb on the worm, this time with psychic damage, getting a fine hit on it. Rumblejaw senses the draconic spirit nearby and bites down on it, swallowing it as well. It strikes it’s tail at Kal, piercing her armor and injecting poison into her veins, but thankfully the poison is rendered inert by the feast. It does however cause Kal to lose concentration on her spell. Rumblejaw then burrows beneath the ground, away from danger.
Kal uses a spell to become the personification of a storm, taking flight. Penny uses a psychic lance to lash out at Rumblejaw as she knows its name. It takes hold, which causes the purple worm to falter. It stumbles around below ground, unable to attack for a few seconds. She emits a disorientating hum, which luckily the rest of the party is unaffected by, but the draconic spirit within her is stunned, as well as taking damage from the acidic interior of the worm. Relic can feel Rumblejaw moving to his position, and so he uses a wall of force to create a sphere to protect him.
From within, Dandelion is protected from the acid due to the draconic spirit, and uses blight on the beast, wounding her greatly. After this, the draconic spirit wilters away, consumed by the acids. Dandelion is no longer protected, and will have a harder time now. Kal in the meantime has landed near the sphere of force, hoping to lure the worm into making an attack at Relic, as the sphere of force is impregnable and immovable. Penny flies off the roof to the fountain in the middle of the square, animating it, while telling it to attack the worm.
A second later, a group of burrowing monsters comes from below ground, which Relic recognizes as Ankhegs. Seems like Rumblejaw has a few minions that help her out. As Relic is stuck inside the sphere and the worm is hidden, he waits for something to happen, being careful not to drop his concentration. The ground beneath him suddenly explodes from the force of Rumblejaw burrowing up, hitting the sphere hard. Debris, teeth and purple blood splashes everywhere, with Kal taking a brunt of the damage as she was in the proximity of the attack. From within, Dandelion stabs the worm with a dagger, leaving it in the lining of the stomach.
Rumblejaw moves herself closer to where Penny is, as she has noticed a commotion from the animated statue being surrounded by the ankhegs. Kal fires at her with her lightning, boosting the damage with destructive wrath. One of the ankhegs spits acid at Penny, who is flying over the square, while the other three attack the animated statue. Penny uses her prismatic spray at the enemies, getting a fine hit at the enemies, managing to vaporize one of the ankhegs. Rumblejaw makes a tail swipe at Penny, causing her to lose concentration, and descends to the ground. A sinkhole appears beneath her, and she jumps to the side to avoid it. Relic fires at the beast again, this time using lightning.
Rumblejaw burrows below ground again, giving Penny an opening to swipe at her, but the hide is tough, so the attack is ineffective. The ground rumbles heavily, and Penny is thrown to the side as the purple worm bursts out from below ground, dealing a massive amount of damage to Penny and takes out one of the ankhegs. The worm then slams into the ground again, causing Penny to topple over. She gets up, chugs down a healing potion, and then fires another psychic lance at the monstrosity, hoping to stun her so she stays above ground. Rumblejaw notices the effect and exerts herself to overcome the effect, which strains her greatly. Penny then tries to move away from the worm, but as she does she is instead swallowed whole. Now half the party has been eaten by the worm. Dandelion uses heat metal on the dagger embedded in the flesh of Rumblejaw, causing her great discomfort.
Relic throws another chromatic orb at Rumblejaw, getting a fine hit on her. Kal has landed once again near the sphere, hoping to lure the worm closer to do another burrowing strike, but the worm instead burrows over to her, biting at her instead. Kal tries her hardest to resist being eaten, but cannot stop it. She too is swallowed whole. Relic uses a fireball at the two remaining ankhegs, vaporizing them. Rumblejaw moves over to the animated statue, and attacks it, causing it to lose its magic. Noticing no more enemies in the area, but still being attacked by something, Rumblejaw decides to burrow below ground, to regain her strength.
Getting desperate and close to dying, Dandelion uses wither and bloom to hurt the worm while also regaining some health. Kal, in a last ditch effort as she feels herself melting away from the acid, uses a destructive wave, bursting open parts of the worm, finishing her off. The trio that was stuck inside is suddenly freed, but now faces another problem, being stuck underground, with no way to breathe. Penny quickly uses a charge from her songbook to cast polymorph on herself, becoming a giant badger, while Dandelion wild shapes into the same. They both dig themselves towards Kal, as nobody else could have cast that spell, and help her get to the surface before suffocating.
Aftermath
Relic drops the sphere of force, running over to help the others. The party hasn’t forgotten about the Shard of the Thief that Kal could sense in her vision, and begins digging for it. Penny helps out at first, but even with Relic trying to triangulate the position of the shard by moving around, it takes time to do so. After Penny reverts to her regular self, she sends a sending to Tamsyn, telling them that their task has been completed. Tamsyn tells her that she will come right over.
Tamsyn carefully makes her way down the street, finding the group greatly wounded, apart from Relic who looks completely fine. She offers to heal the party a bit, giving Kal and Penny a bunch of healing, saving a slot for Dandelion, who is still digging around in the dirt and blood below ground. After a few hours, she senses a light, and knows she has found what they were looking for. She digs straight up, indicating where it is. Relic then uses a cantrip to move the earth aside, getting looks from the trio that was trapped below ground a few hours earlier. Shortly after, a green glow emerges from the destroyed corpse of Rumblejaw.
Relic uses mage hand to yank the shard free, making sure not to touch it. Penny, not managing to keep her hands to herself, walks over and touches it, causing it to bond to her by attaching itself at her clavicle. She gets a sense at what it does, increasing her dexterity and giving her an innate climbing speed. It sadly also causes all her other items to unattune. Happy with nobody dying and Rumblejaw now literally being buried for good, they head back to Tamsyn’s house for a short rest and a hearty meal.
Relic uses his magical orb to sense if there are any hidden magical items nearby. Trailing a bit behind, he gets a sense of something powerful in a nearby building, what looks like it may have been a store front at some point. He wanders inside, finding it to be abandoned, and at first thinking that he must have been mistaken as he cannot see anything of value, before his attention is drawn to a card below the dust and the sand, perfectly centered on the counter. He recognizes it as identical to the other twelve cards they have found, and decides to keep it on the down low until they are alone.
Relic quickly catches up to the others in the party, and high above Argus and Ira is watching down at the party, having observed the fight and now keeps a lookout for dangers that might lurk in the city. They are not doing a good enough job, because both Kal and Dandelion notice a figure jumping from one rooftop to another in a side alley. They share a look, acknowledging that they both saw it, while Kal shouts “Hope you enjoyed the show!” The owls quickly descend, thinking she shouted it to them, congratulating the party at the fierce battle, even though it was scary for a few seconds there.
When they arrive at Tamsyn’s house they all go inside, with Kal beginning to make a meal out of the care package that Thervan sent with them. Dandelion tells Tamsyn about their travels, showing off the rock collection that she has gathered over time, much to the joy of Tamsyn, who shares her own, less impressive, collection from the nearby river. Tamsyn is especially intrigued by Rocky, the sentient rock. Relic, seeing it for the first time, thinks it looks similar to a rock a dwarf he knew a long time ago had. He too claimed it was sentient. Hearing the party talk about their travels causes Tamsyn to be a bit ambivalent. She wants to travel, but it still feels “wrong” to leave Swellingstrum, even if Rumblejaw is gone. Penny suggests that she can check out The Emerald Earth Sanctuary, which Tamsyn thinks is a good idea, while also wanting to check out Dandelion’s forest at some point too.
Penny plays some soothing music while Kal serves lunch, and they all eat to regain some strength. Kal and Dandelion tell the others about the figure that they saw when exiting the city, but Tamsyn has no idea who it might be. Probably another explorer, so the party decides to head back and hope for the best, as they look for the Starlit Stage.
An Unexpected Visitor
The party wanders down the streets, with Tamsyn taking charge, pointing out where she has ventured and explored without touching the ground, sticking to the walls and rooftops. Above them, the owls are scouting ahead, and as the party reaches a long street of collapsed buildings, Argus descends, quickly followed by Ira. He tells the party that there is someone sitting on a nearby roof, seemingly waiting for them. He thinks she looks “normal”, with black hair, when asked to describe her. The party thinks at first it might be Lirael somehow, but the description doesn’t match the vision they had of her.
They continue down the street, seeing the woman Argus described sitting with her feets dangling from the edge. “I did enjoy the show” she says, as a response to Kal’s earlier shout when they were exiting the city. They ask what she is doing here, and she replies that she is looking for the party, wondering what they are doing in the city. They tell the woman, who introduces herself as Halá, that they were here to defeat Rumblejaw. Halá questions why they are still venturing into the city then, and asks again what they are looking for.
Penny has taken up her monocular, and casually looks at the woman, seeing a pale skin with white eyes, reminding her of Fie, but more… decayed, somehow. The group is unwilling to respond, and asks again why she wants to know. Halá tells them that they have a common acquaintance who sent her, hoping to find out more about their doings and business. They know them as Malice. The party suddenly realizes that this is Lady Ar'alani, who Kal and Relic saw cutting off their escape when the castle was attacked and they were escorting the princess. This is enough for Relic, who casts a ray of disintegration at the woman.
Lady Ar’alani is struck by the beam, and it damages her greatly, but it isn’t enough to bring her down. Dandelion tries to entangle her to hold her in place, but the vines just fall off, unable to affect her. They realize she has a limited magical immunity, so they have to use some more powerful magic if they want to attack her. Suddenly, four undead looking drows appear around them, standing on the rooftops above. They all attack the party, but they aren’t very effective. Kal uses a channel divinity, managing to destroy a couple of them.
Lady Ar’alani, the death knight, who has taken out her bow, channels a strange energy into it and releases a barrage of arrows at the party. This causes Kal to be blinded by the effect, while Tamsyn is struck by a few arrows, enough to cause her to go unconscious. The death knight then moves away from the party, running along the top of the wall. Dandelion tries to cast a fireball at her, but she just shrugs this off as well. One of the undead drows tries to cast a spell at Kal, Dandelion and Tamsyn, but Penny counters it. Kal then uses a reverberating jump to get closer to the death knight, after Relic has cast a lightning bolt at her, taking out one of the undead drows in the process.
Now flanked by the cleric, Lady Ar’alani takes out her dagger and takes a few swipes at Kal, the energy now flowing into it instead. The first attack misses, but the second strike hits Kal in the side, causing her to disappear. She then takes a shot at Dandelion who has moved closer to Tamsyn to help her out. Tamsyn manages to wake on her own, and so gets up to move to the side, out of harm's way. Penny polymorphs into a giant spider, while Relic casts another fireball at the death knight, upcasting it and changing the damage to radiant. It hurts, but not too much.
Kal returns from her banishment. Lady Ar’alani leans in towards her and says that she has overstayed her welcome, but they will face each other again, before running away around a corner. Kal takes a swipe at her with Stormseeker, shouting at her “Say hi to the bitch from us, you bloody coward”. They then hear the distinctive sound of a plane shift spell, as the death knight escapes the battlefield. Penny webs the final undead drow, while Dandelion finishes it off with an ice knife.
Tamsyn, stressed and traumatized by almost dying, heals herself, while Penny gives her a healing potion. Kal tops her off with another healing spell, bringing her almost back to full. They continue onwards, Tamsyn still in front, but looking way more paranoid at the nearby rooftops, in case the death knight returns.
The Starlit Stage
They finally reach their destination, finding what once was the magnificent theater having sunk into the ground, partially collapsed, but still, the building seems to be intact. The front has a few boulders blocking the path, with a crack just wide enough to squeeze through. Relic examines the exterior and finds that unless a massive explosion were to shake the building, it should hold up long enough for them to do their business and leave. The name of the theater can be seen in the outline of what once were letters over the entrance, confirming that they have the right place. Penny starts squeezing through, followed by Tamsyn and then the rest. Dandelion has the hardest time getting through, being bigger than most, but they manage.
Emerging on the other side, Penny sees a vast well preserved entrance hall, with a staircase leading down to one of several theater halls. The wood, and even paint have been preserved here. While she waits for the others to make their way through the crack, Penny can hear a faint song coming from a set of double doors at the bottom of the stairs. One of the doors has partially fallen off, revealing the ruined hallway within. When Relic gets through, and moves a bit closer to Penny, he gets a sense of a powerful magical object ahead.
After the whole party has made their way through, they descend the stairs, opening the double doors. One of the doors falls off its hinges, and hits the ground, making a heavy thud. Tamsyn tells the others that she will wait for them, not wanting to wander through the city by herself. The party enters the hall, seeing a stage in the center, surrounded by the seating arrangements in the circular chamber. In the center of the stage they can see a skeleton with a lute in its hands, alongside a chair that has fallen over.
The party stays behind, as Penny walks up the stairs to the stage, having been given a few flowers that Dandelion druidcrafted for her. She feels a resistance, like passing through a barrier as she gets on stage, but thinks nothing of it. She carefully approaches the skeleton, but before she has a chance to lay down the flowers, it starts moving. The light which has been illuminating the stage starts coalescing around the skeleton, forming the body of a woman, which they recognize as Lirael. She starts hovering, lute in hand, looking down at Penny, who is still holding her flowers.
“You have touched him, or he has touched you” she says. Penny nods. “Why are you here?”. Penny replies that she wants to rid the world of him. Lirael tells her to prove it. The barrier that Penny walked through solidifies, cutting her off from the rest of the party, who observes. Shadows, echoes, begin to appear on the stands surrounding the stage. Lirael plays on her lute, causing some sort of spiritual damage to Penny, who realizes that this is a duel of music. She takes out her violin, and begins performing, striking back at Lirael.
The shadows surrounding the stage begin moving towards the center, heading straight for Penny. Not wanting to find out what happens if they reach her, the ones outside take up positions to defend their friend. Kal activates Stormseeker and her spirit guardians, keeping one side of the stage clear of shadows. Dandelion throws out a few beasts from the bag of tricks, summoning Wolfsleigh and Weasley, the weasel.
The duel is fierce, with music flowing back and forth, hitting hard. The party tries to shout encouraging words at Penny, which helps her regain some of her composure, while at the same time holding back the ever increasing torrent of echoes that moves towards Penny. They realize if Penny doesn’t manage to end this soon, they will be overrun by echoes and unable to stop them reaching her.
Lirael does a last ditch finale on her lute, striking at Penny, but it is not enough to stop her, who in turn strums her violin, sending a final wave of musical energy into the legendary bard. The bones of Lirael disintegrate, and the battle is over. The remaining echoes stands still, looking at Penny. Lirael says that she has proven her worth, and gives Penny her lute, the legendary artifact Harmony. She instantly attunes to it, finding it to hum in satisfaction. Lirael looks at the rest of the party, holding the other artifacts, saying that if they have begun appearing, that means that he must be close to returning as well. She looks at Dandelion, almost as a plea to not give up, before looking back at Penny.
“If you cannot stop him, I fear nobody will be able to, and the world will once again be plunged into darkness”
Penny promises her that they will stop him. Lirael gives a satisfied smile, before fading away into nothing, her spirit free at last. Penny stands alone on the stage, surrounded by the flowers Dandelion made. The room suddenly shifts, and a vision of the theater in its prime is revealed, with vibrant colors, and hundreds of people sitting on the stands, looking at Penny. They all rise up, and the party can hear an echo of an applause. Penny takes a short bow, before the theater turns back to the present, and they decide to leave the hall, having gotten what they came for.