Previously: Chapter 95: Daybreak
Kraken
The tentacles immediately strike at the party, grabbing hold of all but Penny, holding them in place to prevent them from going further. Kal summons an insect swarm, trying to chase away the tentacles, but they fling her into a nearby wall in return. Relic, who managed to wrangle himself free from a tentacle, uses dimension door to teleport himself and Elmroot free.
The party realizes that they have to make their way towards the big door leading into the temple, or defeat the kraken entirely, so they begin flying, swimming and teleporting their way there, but each time they defeat one of the tentacles, another one appears. At one point, Thistlethorn is slung into a nearby ruin, landing on top of a skeleton. All it’s clothes have decayed over time, except for a pristine looking bear cloak. Intrigued by the obvious magic radiating from it, she puts it around her, and tries to fight her way back to the others.
The fight takes a toll on the party, causing both Kal and Thistlethorn to be bloodied by the torrent of attacks from the tentacles. Eventually, they manage to chase away the final tentacles, causing the kraken beneath to let out a terrified and wounded scream, causing the entire temple to shake. Penny and Thistlethorn both feel bad for it, wishing they could do something to help it, but decide that there are more important things to do here.
The party decides to take a short rest to recuperate from the fight, with Penny taking out Bozuuth the Sentient Coffee Pot to speed up the short rest. When she takes him out, he immediately tells her that he wants to leave, as he feels the place is pushing him away. Penny promises that they’re not going to stay long, hoping she isn’t lying to him.
Thistlethorn shows the others the cloak she found, asking Relic to take a look at it. He identifies it as a Hide of the Wild Guardian, a powerful druid cloak that enhances a druid’s natural abilities. She happily takes it back, attuning to it as they recuperate some of their strength before they venture forth. Penny plays a song on harmony, healing the party some more.
The Trials
Thistlethorn and Relic take a close look at the door, finding that the vines that have grown over have been broken, indicating that someone has opened the door recently, no more than a few weeks ago, but not since. They worry who might be waiting for them inside, but decide to push on through. They open the door, finding a dark staircase leading far below into the depths below. When they step on through, the braziers that line the wall light up one by one as they pass by.
At the bottom of the stairs they find a carpet running forward into the temple, past a set of double doors blocking their path. Relic and Penny inspect it, finding it not to be trapped, or locked. Looking around, they see that there once used to be murals lining the walls, but they appear to be sanded away, leaving only the odd marking of what once was part of the mural behind, the rest of the wall completely smooth. Around them, mists are coalescing, and when they stand too long in one spot, it begins to pool around their feet, seeking them out. The party feels they shouldn’t linger too long.
In the room beyond the door, they see a massive mirror dominating the far wall, with no other way in sight. They see their own reflections in the mirror, and as the lanterns in this room, held by golden statues, light up, the mirror images are still shrouded in shadows.
Penny uses her detect thoughts to see if there are other entities in the room, and when she gets close enough to the mirror she feels the presence of thoughts inside, indicating that their mirror images are entities themselves. Knowing this, Kal prepares herself mentally for a fight, but takes the diplomatic route, stepping forward, asking the shadows to let them pass. She sees that her mirror image is not moving it’s mouth when she speaks, and it shifts her head when Kal isn’t, proving that they are separate entities. When she moves close enough, her mirror image steps out of the mirror, blocking her path.
Penny steps forward as well, and is also blocked by her mirror image, shrouded in shadows. Kal and Penny are both tested by the images, and they get the feeling they’re speaking with their own insecurities. The images demand them to come to terms with what they have done, letting people down, failing them when they could have saved them, and then asking them if they would do anything different, knowing where they have ended up. When both Penny and Kal admit to their mistakes, and proclaiming they still would not change anything, they swap places with their mirror counterparts.
Thistlethorn and Relic both see this, but they don’t hear any interaction, it just happens in a few seconds, so they too step forward. Thistlethorn is open and honest with her mirror image, admitting immediately that she blamed herself at first, but realises that Faunus set her on this path, so she wouldn’t change a thing. Relic is taunted by his failure to protect Bimble, but he approaches the problem with logic and reason, admitting to his mistakes and failures, but not wanting to change a thing either. Both he and Thistlethorn also swap places. The party turns towards the mirror, which is now accessible to them, stepping into it. Behind them, the reflections disappear, and the path forward is clear. They open the door, and see the reflection of the door open as well, but their mirror images are nowhere to be seen, as they head onwards, deeper towards their destination.
The next hallway leads to a door where they see flickering lights creeping through the crack on the bottom. Touching the door shows it to be quite warm. They push it open, revealing an inferno on the other side, as flames line the wall, covering the path forward. Thistlethorn looks around, finding some writing above the door behind them, which Kal reads as celestial.
“Only those who accept the fire shall pass unscathed”
Thistlethorn holds out her hands to test the flame, finding it burning her violently, almost pulling her in. She instinctively pulls back, fearful of being burned again. Relic, Kal and Penny sees this, and decides that the only way to pass is to not be fearful, stepping into it. They manage to pass it without issue, just feeling a slight tingle at the flames licking against their skin. Thistlethorn follows, at first sceptical, having already been burned once, but manages to overcome her fear, passing through without taking more damage.
The party continues onwards, meeting another door, this one with another inscription above it.
“Only those who yearn for peace shall pass unscathed”
Relic immediately steps through the door, with the rest following. Inside, the come to a dead end, with no door in sight, but what is in the room is Nezznar, holding a giant flaming sword, waiting for the party, getting ready to strike.
“I’ve been waiting for this…”
Penny takes out Harmony, but the whole situation feels off, so she holds off on doing anything, waiting to see what the others do. Relic steps forward, asking Nezznar how they can resolve this, but only gets told that he wishes them dead. Thistlethorn tries to walk past Nezznar, but he blocks her, moving to the side, not letting her pass, while Kal just stands there with her arms crossed.
Suddenly, Nezznar steps forward, holding his sword high, and swings it across the party, striking them all. And then dissipates into nothing, as the sword just passes through them, harmlessly. The party passed the test, and they see the wall in front of them bleeding away, revealing another set of double doors.
The Key
Passing through the final set of doors, they come to a large chamber, which looks like it was once a holy temple of sorts, the roof stretching at least one hundred feet above them. The mist is thicker here, filling up the entire temple, making it difficult to see anything, but the party spots a lone figure standing atop a podium. A snake-like body that paces back and forth, eyeing the party. High above it, they see a golden triangle, the final part of The Key they are missing. The snake-like figure gestures for them to come forth, and Relic recognizes it as a guardian Naga, immortal beings with perfect memory.
The Naga opens its mouth, speaking in a feminine voice.
“Who among you is the seeker?”
Penny reluctantly steps forward, proclaiming her to seek out the key. The Naga swoops down to face her, whispering a riddle into her ear. Thistlethorn, who can read lips, relays the riddle to the party through their mental communication.
“I am ageless. I am Divine. I see beyond reality. I see beyond time.
Beyond your beginnings, a false memory. Beyond your adventures, someone else’s story.
Beyond the charade of your endless strife. Beyond the numbers that gave you life.
Tell me now, and tell me true. Who is your creator?
Who is the one who speaks through you?”
Penny looks up at the Naga, but is unable to find the right answer. She timidly suggests “history” as a suggestion, but the Naga says it is wrong. A beam of sickly green energy bursts out from the Naga’s mouth, hitting Penny, throwing her back, as power word kill almost kills her, but her contingency brings her back.
Kal walks up, and is prompted by the same question Penny got. She thinks for a second, not knowing the answer, but still finds a word. The others can’t hear it, and as soon as Kal has spoken, she’s forgotten what she said, but somehow, she feels it is correct.
The Naga rises, looking pleased. It congratulates her on her success, as the last part of the key, floating high above, gradually begins to descend. Relic takes out the rest of the key, and uses his telekinetic feats to grab hold of the triangle, bringing it to him, and then combines it with the key, completing it. As he does, he gets a flash of something, a vision of where the key leads, finding it to be the equivalent to a rod needed to use plane shift. He knows their destination is Carceri, the prison-plane, where nobody can escape unless allowed by a god.
Malice
The party suddenly hears clapping from behind them, and they turn around seeing two figures approaching. Lord Falric and Lord Vaelen. Lord Falric looks at Relic, who is putting the key away into the satellite bag of holding, and demands that he hands the key over. The party understandably declines, but suddenly a third voice is heard, as another figure comes flying in, saying “oh, but I must insist…” Malice lands between Vaelen and Falric, demanding the key, saying that she’s been waiting for the party to make their way here, but the party is relentless, with Thistlethorn saying “over my dead body”. Malice nods.
“So be it.”
Malice immediately summons a rift in reality, wounding the entire party, while also summoning three wraiths from the rift, which moves in to attack them. Penny immediately fires a shot from Harmony straight at Malice, who doesn’t react in time, being struck, but unfortunately, she’s resistant to force damage, which is most of the damage from the crossbow. But it is still strong enough to wound her.
Lord Falric throws a hellfire orb at the party, causing a lot more damage as well, with Thistlethorn succumbing to the fire and necrotic energy, but Penny uses her reaction to keep her standing with the rings of the true companions. Malice uses her dark magic to keep Relic restrained, as he’s the last one they saw with the key, as Vaelen begins striking him with his axe. Relic goes down, and things look quite bleak, until Kal holds out her hand, casting a spell. Malice tries to counter it, but is unable to, so Kal manages to heal the entire party fully.
Malice is clearly annoyed at this, flinging spells at Kal, hoping to bring her down. There is a lot of back and forth, with Malice counterspelling every attempt at her, but they too counter her back when she tries to cast her own spells. Eventually, Lord Vaelen releases his own hellfire orb, doing a lot more massive damage to the party, while Thistlethorn tries to summon help with her bag of tricks, but only manages to bring out a giant badger.
After a while, Kal has summoned an aura of life, while Thistlethorn and Kal are trying to protect Relic by using protection from evil and good, and Kal uses a Holy Aura to protect them, but it isn’t enough. Malice manages to cast mirror image and greater invisibility on herself. Kal is pummeled by attacks, but manages to hold up her concentration, until Malice flies to the center of the room, screaming “ENOUGH!” as she casts power word kill on Kal. The cleric falls over, her life extinguished, dropping the protective spells.
Relic has tried to teleport away, but is soon cornered by Malice and Falric, who are trying to wrangle the bag of holding from him, but Relic manages to keep hold of it. Thistlethorn walks over to Kal to cast revivify, but Malice counterspells her, hindering Kal’s resurrection. Penny tries to fire at Malice with Harmony, but she just hits one of her mirror images instead.
In the place beyond, Kal is floating in an infinite nothing, approached by a familiar visage of her mother, Mova. She looks at Kal, saddened, saying “you’re failing…”
Lord Falric looks around at the party, seeing the fallen cleric. He shouts out “do you yield, and hand over the key, or will you force us to kill all of you?”. Relic replies that he’s not giving them the key, so Falric sighs, looking at Relic with murderous intent.
Things are looking extremely bleak, and with Kal dead, the party wonder how long they will last until the rest of them fall.