CXXIX. Terror on the Mountaintop
General Summary
Above the broken Temple of the Hierotitan, a giant piece of earth hovered, suspended in the astral plane and darkening the room as it passed over. One huge, bluish eye opened, peering down into the temple from the hole in the ceiling and casting a blue-tinged light down into the room like a sun. The Herald cried out as a warbling sound bellowed from the shape.
"If you will not submit, then we will make you!"A low-slung, emaciated horror with six bladed arms that promised a mangling crept out of the feet of the Hierotitan's skeleton. Two hulks--ogre-like in stature, with glistening, translucent skin--emerged from the partially-destroyed ribcage.
"I'm not submitting to anyone."Amari cast Mind Blank on himself. Immediately afterwards, a claw attached to a huge, slug-like appendage shot out from the looming figure above and attempted to smite Amari down, piercing through the shield he put up to defend himself. Luckily, Amari was still inspired by King's words from the days before, so the damage only ate through he buffer of temporary health they'd given him. A second claw slammed towards Soora before she could make her move. She dodged it, then used the Second Shard of the Astral Diamond to cast Haste on herself. With the extra speed she hid, then dipped her arrows in poison. Acting before anyone expected him to, the Herald cast a three-beam Eldritch Blast at Jäger, Kohinoor, and King. Jäger shot lightning at the Terror when it managed to pierce him with a slime-covered claw, and smiled as the creature seemed to have no natural resistance to it. Another of the Hierotitan's former followers, a Seer, dripping larvae, stepped back and raised his staff aloft, weaving something in the air. The space around Wynna began to bend and collapse in on her, then suddenly stopped as she seemed to repel the effect with her mind. The Seer slunk back. King used the Mithral Bond to grapple the Mangler before it had a chance to skulk away. The Mangler tried to slip out, but King just pulled tighter on the rope, effectively leashing the creature. Kohinoor took the opportunity to activate her emboldening bond before everyone could scatter. Jäger ran up and pushed the Seer ten feet towards King with his lightning before attacking the Herald with his hammer, larvae going flying with each hit. Wynna cast Spirit Guardians, the tiny spirits taking on the form of winged eyeballs. Some of them disappeared as the massive eye above focused its gaze on Wynna and Amari. The two felt no pain in the faint blue light, but soon realized they could not call upon their magic; with the eye looking down on them, they were effectively in an anti-magic field. Both claws came down to crush them. Several of the Hierotitan's former robed worshippers moved in unison and surrounded King, biting him and confounding him with their chattering whispers. They were soon joined by the two hulks, who lumbered over like apes and attacked King as well, emitting a psychic energy as they did so. Completely surrounded, King took hit after hit as the noise invaded his mind and lowered his defenses.-Amari of the Ring & Wren
"King!"With a deft movement of his hands, Amari seemed to pluck at the very wind that howled around the mountain's peak, forming it into a sort of net that guided the drafts toward where King was under attack and created a Whirlwind. Three of the worshippers disintegrated as the swarms of insect larvae that made up their forms were pulled apart. The Seer almost met the same fate, but used teleportation to swap positions with another worshipper on the other side of the temple, who died in his place. The Herald raised his arms, which swelled and grew as larvae amassed into them. When they were too heavy to sustain their own weight, the worms rained downward onto the party. Jäger managed to dodge out of the way due to his danger sense, but King was still too distracted by the remaining worshippers' chittering: the worms buried and then enveloped him, blinding and restraining him in their grip. It seemed that the Herald fed on such failure; a shimmering buffer came into view around him. The Seer threw a psychic orb at Amari, which dispersed completely thanks to the protection of his Blank Mind. Once again, the Seer retreated. The eye focused on Amari, the blue light emanating from it momentarily pulsing purple. Wynna instinctively reached out her hand and tried to foresee his successful resistance to the effect of the light, but it wasn't enough--Amari succumbed and disappeared from the battlefield. King blindly shot a Blink bolt from Crow and teleported to the opposite side of the Pantheon, bringing the worms with him, but managing to shake them off once he arrived. With King distracted, the Mangler managed to slip from the Mithral Bond's grip and hide. The Herald hit Jäger with a club-like mass of worms. Jäger retaliated with a Titanic Punch, utilizing the power of his shard of the Astral Diamond and bursting a hole through the Herald's robes which erupted in a shower of worms. The Herald flew backward until he slammed into one of the hulks. The Terror began to descend. Two claws crashed down, missing Wynna and hitting Jäger. The sound of Waythe's gleeful shouting grew silent, his sentience subdued as the Eye focused its beam down on Wynna, Jäger, and Kohinoor. With King gone, the three drew the attacks of the hulks and the remnants of the worshippers who'd been ganging up on him before. Meanwhile, Amari found himself in a stone cave containing tens of thousands gold coins, precious statues, and a huge disembodied arm that gripped a black greatsword with an ivory-silver blade. What drew Amari's eye especially was a ring on the finger of the arm's hand; the stone embedded within it glowed a light green. As he approached the arm, intent on taking the ring, the arm came to life, raising itself up onto its elbow and raining blows down on him. Amari got in one attack with a Vitriolic Sphere before he was teleported back on the battlefield. Just as he reappeared, the Herald raised his staff in the air:-Amari of the Ring & Wren
"Your fate is sealed! You're already dead!"Amari recognized the somatic movements of the Circle of Death spell he'd seen in Alazar Font's spellbook and quickly Counterspelled it. The shape continued to pummel Wynna with its claws while the Herald worked his vengeance on Amari from a short distance, targeting him with three beams of Eldritch Blast. While he was distracted with the Herald, the Mangler suddenly appeared behind Amari and assailed him with a flurry of claw attacks that knocked him unconscious. Kohinoor moved in and killed the Herald with a divine smite, his mask shattering as it and his robe crumpled to the ground, though the larvae that had filled them still squirmed about. She briskly turned to the Mangler, who still stood over Amari, and decapitated it with a second divine smite. On the other side of the temple, King killed one of the Hulks and used the Mithral Bond to grapple other. In one swift movement, Jäger killed the last two worshippers, using his hammer to crush one's head in and then and throwing it at the other one. Lastly, he turned and punched the Hulk King had grappled, sending it flying and killing it as well.-Herald
"You think two kills is good? How about three!"Wynna rushed to Amari and brought him back to consciousness with Cure Wounds just as The Terror crushed the remains of the ceiling, descending to the temple floor. Fully settled amidst the rubble, the gaze of its massive eye now projected forward instead of downward, and fell upon everyone but King, who lied just outside its field of vision. The Terror attacked Jäger and Amari with its claws, and when it saw that it was close to bringing Amari down, bit him. With Amari now unconscious in its jaws, the Terror swallowed him.-Jäger Ironbeard
"AMARI!"Jäger climbed up the Astral Terror's body and forced its mouth open with an almost supernatural strength, throwing himself into the creature's gullet after his friend. To his surprise, the warm, wet pressure of the throat soon gave way to space, and he found himself in the same demiplanar donjon Amari had gone to earlier, and to which he had been safely deposited now. Jäger cast Healing Word to try and bring Amari back to consciousness, but the spell failed; only then did Jäger notice the slash marks that covered Amari's body. He was dead. Meanwhile, the Seer, who had avoided most of the fighting with his fly-by style of combat, used the opportunity of the Astral Terror's arrival to run up and incapacitate] King, who was separated from the rest of the party, by cracking his head with his Comet Staff. Kohinoor noticed and dashed over, compelling the Seer to duel her in the hope of preventing him from taking King down with his next move. With a flash of inspiration, Wynna cast Gate, determined to use the portal to get to Amari and Jäger. However, she was shocked to find that the spell failed. It seemed wherever her friends were could only be accessed by going in the same way they had...or with a desperate wish. As she despaired, the Astral Terror focused its gaze on her and managed to pierce her with a claw, the other one jutting out and hitting Kohi. Sensing another meal in the making, the Terror tried to bite King, but King managed to parry the attack with the Mithral Bond. Unfortunately, he passed out just a few seconds later when a loud warbling sound emanated from the Terror and shook the last remnants of his psyche, breaking his mental grip on consciousness. Now compelled to fight Kohi alone, the Seer whacked her in the face with his staff and incapacitated her the way he had King. She shook it off a moment later, intent on keeping the Seer's attention on herself as Wynna ran from the Terror's gaze to bring King back to fighting form with a Heal spell. As Wynna rounded the side of the shape, she noticed that the poisoned wounds Soora had been afflicting it with the whole fight were quickly healing themselves with a glowing green light. This fight would only end with their deaths unless they could stop whatever effect was allowing it to heal... Inside the demiplanar donjon, Jäger came face-to-blade with Amari's killer: the disembodied arm of the Hierotitan, still living long after the rest of its body had rotted (or been eaten) away. The animated limb came at him, but Jager punched it across the room, where it finally ceased moving. As he took the ring from its finger, the hand dropped its sword and its flesh disintegrated. Some of Jäger's wounds healed themselves, glowing the same green color as the ring he held in his hand...-Jäger Ironbeard
Character(s) interacted with
Astral Terror
Herald of the Astral Terror
