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Previously: Chapter 93: Beneath the Stone
Fight Beyond Time
The party mobilizes, seeing the drow corpses around them begin to stir. They realize that they have a few seconds before they reach full power, so they spring into action. Relic pushes one of the drows that are waking up closer to The Forgotten Priestess, and then lets off a fireball, engulfing three of them. Penny leaps across an opening, realizing that she’s floating across it, but loses a bit of momentum, prompting her to use the Wand of Wonder at the Forgotten Priestess as she’s too far away from a proper strike. Luckily, the wand lets off another fireball, engulfing the drows once again.
Kal lets out her wings, asking Udall for a blessing, as she steps between the Forgotten Priestess and Thistlethorn, but the priestess responds by summoning a column of flame where they stand, engulfing them in radiance and fire. Thistlethorn throws out the pocket ball, releasing Berry, who springs into action, albeit confused at where they are. A once beautiful drow lets off a few beams of arcane energy, striking Relic and Berry, then attacking Thistlethorn with a poisoned scimitar. The other drows are now fully awake.
Relic fires off another fireball at the same group as before, managing to take down a lesser priestess who was preparing to strike. The Forgotten Priestess tries to cast silence on the party, but Relic counterspells her before accepting Udall’s blessing. Penny, now in position, uses a steel wind strike at all four drow in vicinity, wounding them greatly. Meanwhile, one of the drow teleports behind Relic, striking him thrice, casting a sphere of darkness around Kal, Penny and Thistlethorn.
Kal summons a storm using Stormseeker, powering up its strikes, while also casting Holy Weapon, preparing to do a lot of damage, accidentally disrupting the darkness at the same time. Berry, Thistlethorn and Penny group around the favored concort, but the Forgotten Priestess takes the opportunity to summon another pillar of fire around them, and then dispels Kal’s holy weapon. The drow that was pushed by Relic earlier turns into a giant spider, attacking Penny and Thistlethorn, while the Drow Inquisitor comes in from the left, attacking Thistlethorn, greatly wounding her, and lowering her vitality, after she damaged some of the drows with a sunbeam, but the attacks cause her to lose concentration.
The favored concort tries to fire off more arcane blasts, but shoots wildly, missing them all. Relic fires at the Forgotten Priestess and the shadowblade with a lightning bolt, causing the darkness to fade away. The shadowblade then strikes Kal, before he realizes that she’s resistant to her attacks, but it’s clear the drow senses who the most dangerous one is, trying to focus on her. Kal in turn, summons a Holy Aura, boosting the party, while Berry continues to lash out at whoever is closest. The Forgotten Priestess focuses on Kal, trying to restrain her with a tentacle rod, but Kal manages to resist. Thistlethorn, who has already summoned a bear totem, exchanges it for a unicorn totem, giving the party a much needed health boost.
The Forgotten Priestess responds by casting a wall of blades at Thistlethorn, Berry and Penny. The arachnomancer tries to dispel Kal’s holy aura, but Penny counterspells him. He instead tries to bite Penny and Thistlethorn, but Kal’s holy aura is hindering him from landing a strike. The inquisitor is also having a hard time lashing out at Thistlethorn, but gets in a powerful strike, but Thistlethorn uses silvery barbs to lessen the effect.
The favored consort steps back, getting a claw from Berry as she backs away, and then fires arcane blasts at the party. Relic pulls Thistlethorn out of the wall of blades, and then fires another lightning bolt at the Forgotten Priestess and her consort. Penny lets out a volley of arcane energy, breaking the Forgotten Priestess’ concentration on the wall of blades, which fades away. Suddenly, Relic is shunted through the air right into a pile of rubble, taking a bunch of damage. The shadowblade throws out another area of darkness, trying to get the upper hand on Kal, not realizing that she has blindsight, and can see the attacks coming. He still manages to hit her three times though.
Thistlethorn steps away from the danger, using another mass cure wounds, but is hit by the inquisitor, who turns towards Penny along with the arachnomancer. The inquisitor summons a spectral dagger to strike at Kal, who is in melee with the Forgotten Priestess. The consort sees Relic is outside of Kal’s holy aura, using several arcane blasts to greatly wound Relic, pushing him off the platform. The party panics for a brief moment, before they realize that he isn’t falling, but floating. Relic, sees his opportunity, and teleports over to the small island floating high above where the smoke is coming from, seeing a normal looking drow on an altar, two-bladed sword sticking out of his chest. Relic realizes that this is what Vuthul looked like before he ascended, and he also is shocked to find that he recognizes him, but does not remember from where. As he is staring at the mortal form of Vuthul, he takes a healing potion to brace himself for what he is about to do.
Penny plays a chord from Harmony, blasting away the two drow flanking her, causing them to be frightened of her. The whole platform shakes, as spectral hands emerge from the ground, trying to restrain the party, but only Thistlethorn fails to move away in time. The Forgotten Priestess tries to heal herself, but Penny counters it, so she instead tries to banish Kal, but is unsuccessful, and Kal takes the opportunity to absorb the spell, giving her a spell slot back. Kal in response, starts moving towards her, pelting her with attacks using Stormseeker, before moving between the Forgotten Priestess and Thistlethorn, seeing her in mortal danger.
The arachnomancer casts another darkness over where Thistlethorn is restrained, hiding Penny from view, allowing him and the inquisitor to gang up on Berry who stands alone. Berry manages to stay up thanks to the temporary hit points provided by Thistlethorn, while the inquisitor sends the spectral dagger into the shadows to attack Kal. The consort fires three arcane blasts at Kal, causing her to finally lose concentration on the Holy Aura, leaving them open to being taken out.
Relic, chugging another potion, braces himself, before putting his hand on the blade, and pulls. The feeling is excruciating, and he can see that his arm is close to disintegrating, but he relents, managing to pull the dagger completely free, before he collapses to the ground, his life force ebbing away. The party senses his fall, and immediately turns towards the island in the sky, where the plume of liquid smoke is dissipating.
The Forgotten Priestess sees that she is outnumbered, as Berry slays the arachnomancer, and begins to run towards her consort for safety, but Thistlethorn drags her back using a thorn whip. Penny steps out of the darkness as well, seeing the Forgotten Priestess trying to run away, firing at her with Harmony, striking her in her forehead. The Forgotten Priestess utters a quiet “not like this…” before slumping over. Curiously, she suddenly looked a lot older than she did a few seconds ago, and the other drows also begin to show the signs if aging.
Kal takes off, flying towards the island Relic lies on, close to death, being fired at by the favored consort, but Kal is steadfast. The consort turns towards Thistlethorn who is running to attack her, slicing her with her scimitar before she can get in a hit. Berry takes down the inquisitor, as Kal is just within range, using a healing word on Relic, bringing him back, before the consort fires a final volley at her, knocking her out. Relic, in turn, incinerates the consort with a final fireball, finishing off the last of the enemies.
The Aftermath
Relic flies over to Kal, as he can fly around freely when not over the platform, giving her a health potion, before they both fly down to join the others. Thistlethorn gathers everyone around the unicorn totem, using another healing spell, as Kal uses a healing aura, bringing most of them back up to basically full health. Thistlethorn’s vitality has been drained significantly, and so she needs rest to get back up to 100%. But, they see that they got what they came for, staring at the sword, and the cost, staring at Relic’s shriveled up arm, hidden beneath the seeming for everyone else, but one they can glimpse through. The arm of his robe is completely burned away.
They look around, seeing that the drows they were fighting have decayed away into dust, leaving only bones and rusty weapons behind. Relic holds up the sword, casting identify on it, learning that it is a weapon called a Soulkiller, capable of destroying the soul of any creature struck by it, as long as you whisper the true name of the creature to the sword. A way to kill Vuthul, but first, they need to find his name. Berry looks around nervously, wondering where they are, with Thistlethorn calming him down, saying they will go home soon, offering him a place in the pocket ball, which he accepts.
Before they leave, while the rest scour the battlefield, Relic flies over to the altar where the unnamed drow still lies, only bones remaining, studying the ancient text. He discovers that what was translated as Vuthul’s Slaughter actually is closer to Vuthul’s Sacrifice. He wonders why he recognized the drow, before returning down to the others, as they step through the teleportation circle as one.
When they emerge on the other side, Thistlethorn feels the magic vanishing from the wayfinder, it’s purpose fulfilled. They walk to the stone elevator, seeing now that there appears to be remnants of a collapsed tunnel beyond it, probably what they were excavating for in the valley outside. As they step on the stone, it starts rising, leading them back up to Xar'theris, but it’s a slower journey than going down.
Kal really wants to save the other prisoners stuck in the prison, but Relic rules against it, saying it’s better to take those they can, rather than risk them all. Penny holds up the Hearthstone, saying she’ll use it to bring them out, hoping that everything goes according to plan, but Kal will have to use word of recall to help, as Penny can only bring with her 6 people. Kal, unsatisfied with not getting everyone, calls out to Udall for help with divine intervention.
To her surprise, Udall answers.
Next: Chapter 95: Daybreak