Session 114: From Dawn till Dawn

General Summary

22nd-24th Brussendar 836PD   22nd-23rd Brussendar   Now the true Emberwind had been found, the party return to the Keeper’s study for further examination and to discuss their next steps. They know they have two dawns to prepare the site for an assault. They start off their information gathering and surveying of the site. As they prepare to start their tour, they are shocked with a knock at the study door!   Raphael cautiously opens it while the rest ready themselves, but rather than the Aspect and his corrupted hordes, there stood an elf in Winter Court armour. After verifying his genuineness, he introduces himself as General Talos, he had been teleported by Queen Mab ahead of her forces to share what intel they had gathered already on the enemy forces, and provide an update of their reinforcements.   The corrupted forces are being led by a Lock-Breaker, Izkelthia the Vermin Wrangler, a powerful hag that a previous druidic ally, Pluto Portobello, had been on the hunt to take down. It seems they failed…   General Talos’s troops will arrive by the over morrow dawn, although their numbers are only a quarter of the enemy forces. But to compensate the General is here early to recon the site and provide military advice to the Unbroken.   With the new General guest, the Keeper walks the group through the underground complex, pointing out where are the various traps and defensive glyphs. He stops at the end of a corridor hidden far at the back, showing a blank wall to the group’s bemusement. He asks Simeon to approach and think open when holding Emberwind, and it reveals a doorway, they all cross through it into a demi-plane which holds the Arch-Heart’s Shackle. Hopefully the final divine fey trickery!   Simeon detects the divine magics of Forbiddance around the shackle, that will hold back lesser minions and even hurt the Lock-Breaker, but it might not hold them back for long. The Keeper suggests that the magic can trap as well as protect, and the germination of plans starts with the idea of trapping the Lock-Breaker with them in the Shackle. But first they must thin the forces before they can reach this room.   The group spend the evening workshopping ideas and plans, but with the tranquillity of the Valley, they indulge themselves just for the night to recuperate. Arthur and Orlando explore the records of the Keepers.   Noting Simeon hasn’t been one to wield weapons, Raphael offers to spar with him and help him get to grips with being a Knight of a fey Court. As the Summer and Winter Knights practice amongst the tombs of heroes, sparks (and them!) literally fly when Emberwind and Frostweaver connect. Sending each other across the room with a thunderous clap. They soon learn to practice with their sheaths on!   Enessa and Ussi take a leisurely perimeter check in the desert with the General, finding good conversation in the exploits of their respective Wild and Winter hunts.   Raven, however does not settle at all, he is plagued with whispers and whooshing sounds, ever since he arrived in the feywild and called on the Wildmother's nature to aid in Xandria's resurrection, something has seemed to be trying to reach him. The Keeper notices his odd behaviour, and when he keeps turning his head to these sounds, the Keeper notices the Circlet on Raven’s head and recognises it. He takes Raven to one of the tombs they passed earlier but didn’t notice, standing in statue is the familiar halfing face of Sariel Oakenheel, the Exarch of the Wildmother.   The Keeper explains that many heroes of the Calamity, even those that weren’t Champions of the Arch-Heart but of other Gods, are also buried here as well. The Circlet of the Wild Moon that Raven wears, once belonged to Sariel. A gift from the Wildmother and the Moonweaver, and as a token that demonstrated not every path of faith has to be a single route. As his fellow follower of Sehanine, Simeon, demonstrated that very day you can give fealty to more than one patron.   Raven reflects on the Keeper’s words, and kneels before the statue of Sariel and offers a prayer to her and the Wildmother. His call to nature clears the whispers in his mind, the whooshing becomes more rhythmic, the sound of parting air from beating wings.   The flapping gets faster and faster, building to a crescendo of a raven’s croak, that emanates from the mouth of Raven himself, but the sound does not pass his lips, instead it passes through a scarred beak. The roguish ranger looks down, expecting his elven body but finding feathers, he’s unlocked the full power of the Circlet and is now able to wildshape himself into a normal and even giant-sized Raven!   With a night’s rest, the group make the most of the full day and night they have left. At dawn they plan extensively, and settle on preparing an ambush on the initial forces up top. Use whatever they can that can hit wide areas of targets to thin the pawns, and luring the less expandable main forces through the tight corridors of the tombs below. Before retreating to a final stand at the Shackle.   Enessa with help from the General develops a master tactician plan, that they will pull off when they need the advantage the most. Arthur arcane locks the secret door leading to the Keeper’s study, so that he has somewhere safe to hide. Simeon extends the Shackle’s forbiddance with his own magic to cover the rest of the tombs.   24th Brussendar   Dawn of the divined over morrow, the Unbroken take their positions across the buildings in the desert valley.   Arthur telepathically links them all and uses his arcane abeyance to condense a fireball into a mote, then sends his owl familiar Fugit off ahead ready to unleash it on his command. General Talos receives a sending that the enemy Vanguard will arrive soon about 10 to 20 mins ahead of the main force, and that the Winter reinforcements will be soon be there after the Vanguard. He’s also informed that the Lock-Breaker has corrupted a Giant into their service as well!   They wait, and soon enough the small vanguard force of 5 Corrupted Eladrin cautiously approaches the Valley. They survey the area, and as they expect the teleportation circle, Raven bursts out of the bottom right mausoleum and the others follow suit out of the other buildings, successfully ambushing the Eladrin with bows, bullets and blasts.   Arthur reaches out with the chilling touch to wear down the resilient health of the Eladrin. Raphael hexes and blasts into the vanguard, eventually felling one of the Vanguard with cold eldritch magic of Winter.   Raven, Enessa and Orlando use the doors and pillars to their advantage, depriving the Eladrin of targets while they hit and run. The desert fire fight wears both sides down, Raven fells another one of the five down with the wild radiant bolt of his Moon Bow.   However, the Eladrin’s resilience is bolstered by their corruption, and they channel the dark gifts of Tharizdun to flood Arthur, Raphael and Raven within a circle of death. Then hail down on the top group with the psychic sting of their bows. Simeon soon learns to avoid their strikes, cunningly sending his duplicate out as an obvious illusion that is ignored by the vanguard, and then promptly switching places with it to benefit from this ignorance.   If this is just the vanguard, then the Unbroken are in for the toughest fight of their lives…