Epilogue of Flame - The Fall of Respite

General Summary

Of Calm and Chaos

The rain falls, thunder crashes, and the crooked smile of lightning lingers, frozen in the cracked sky. As you deal the final blow to the Necromancer’s horde, you look to each other, weary, wet, and worn out from a long day of defending your friends.
In the span of a single day you managed to save Petula & Kelly, Orros and the wandering crowds of Siren’s Repose, the reformed Paxton, an tormented tortle, a trio of tiny adventurers, your reformed friend Soraya, and a long-forgotten acquaintance from across the world, Morgara. You think back on all you have accomplished, taking the moment of respite in a city that has been stripped of its name, and look to the sky.
Although dark and murky, you see gaps in the clouds where a colossal arcane sigil has been transcribed in the negative spaces, and the dying embers of dusklight begin to break through the inclemency. The casters, a ring of unknown figures floating around the Crystarium, continue to rebuff the continued assaults of the unknown draconic entity as their ritual approaches its conclusion.
As the sigil is completed, the dragon releases a breath of purple light directly at the casters, hitting an imperceptible sphere that surrounds them. As the seconds pass, the beam does not stop until one by one, casters begin to fall - exhausted, defeated, dead, from your vantage you cannot tell, but a single body remains floating in the air to complete the spell.
First, you feel the air turn warm as the rain hitting your bodies begins to drift backwards into the sky. The clouds toss and turn as the outer edges of the sigil being to catch flame - the sky is alight, but is it an omen for you or the enemy? The flame spirals, multiple tendrils of ignition reaching inwards until they meet at the centre, directly above the Crystarium. A violent wildfire, a conflagration of epic proportions, burns away the last of the storm, and reshapes itself into a winged creature of gargantuan proportions that floats in the sky and lets out a cacophonous screech.
Tinderstrike burns in Jaki’s hand, angry and restless, as whatever spirit lies within the weapon is outraged by the presence of this creature - the primordial spirit of Fire, Phoenix. You feel its rage burning through you, an anger you haven’t felt since you were a child orphan. But as quickly as the eikon appeared, it shattered into a hail of cleansing fire, clearing whatever remaining fragments of the siege could be seen by the sky itself.
“Is it over?”, you collectively wonder. And perhaps it is - you have succeeded in what you set out to do, and the city appears to be saved, but perhaps you spoke too soon. The ground begins to shake, a violent magic rips through the air as you feel the very currents of aether shift and move as a violent wave tears through the region. You hear the sound of crashing, of wood scraping and breaking, glass shattering to the ground, and you instinctively drag your weary bodies to investigate.
You don’t have to go far to find the source of the sound. As you turn a few corners, you see piles of furniture and belongings, the entire lives of the residents of this city, tossed from their homes in piles by their doors. People who were in their homes, taking shelter from the assault, either lay above, below, or within their assets, drowning in their own achievements. Buildings only as large as the space they occupy seem to be unaffected, but those buildings which are bigger within have violently been expunged of their extradimensional contents…
Leaving Soraya and Morgara to take care of the Kindled Hearth Hospital, you return to your own home. Wandering through the gallery of jettisoned lives that litter the stone streets of Respite, you find that you didn’t have much in the way of furniture inside and so only a paltry pile of wayward goods sits at your door. Beyond the opening, a windowless, 25 square foot space awaits you, and you drag your teleportation circle inside for safe keeping. Luckily for your troupe, Camper’s Respite allows you a little extra space and so you find yourselves with a home whilst you wait and see how things shake out.

The Restless of Respite

Over the next few days, chaos begins to wash over the streets of Respite as people struggle to adjust to their new status quo. Many of the residents quickly begin to pack up their things and get out of town, deciding that this is no longer the haven it once was and opting instead to return home, while any newly homeless folks that chose to stay are put up in the various hotels, taverns and venues around the city.
With its drastically lowered capacity, the city of Respite has decided to temporarily refuse visitors as there is nowhere for them to stay. A small tent-city has popped up outside its borders of merchants who came with goods to sell, whose livelihood depends on selling within this city, so they can be first in the marketplace when trading begins anew. The ward of the Feyreach Bazaar, eerily quiet without the bustle of its marketplace, has unofficially closed for the time being, and the free-standing stores of the city (whose mundane buildings and oftentimes magical inventory were unaffected by the incident) have taken the time to perform inventory checks and maintenance, remaining functionally closed but open for those in need of items to help rebuild the city.
It will take time for the city to recover, but there is little hope remaining in its citizenry. Although the tempest has passed over the city, its dour atmosphere remains. Your first instincts are to return to Orion’s League and speak to Doris or Kain for information, but you are quickly ushered away as it appears the town’s leaders, who had been responsible for summoning the eikon of Phoenix in a showing of collaborative magic not seen since ages past, had exhausted much of their energy and have entered a near-comatose state.
With the town’s leadership suspended in their arcane slumber, the burden of maintaining order has fallen to Kain’s guild, restoration efforts to the House Mothers of Siren’s Repose, organising funds and the exodus of citizens to the coinmasters of the Feyreach Bazaar, and the health and wellbeing of the remaining citizens, as well as any injured visitors, to the healers of Hydra’s Reliquary. Kaine simply asks that you help the town where you can until called upon, as they are still gathering more information.
As you take your leave, feeling somewhat spurned that the heroes of Respite, those who had saved the city on more than one occasion, have been benched, Fallthorn is pulled aside by Doris. She hands him a note with an address for a hospital in the Reliquary, and suggests he makes his way there. He maintains composure, and tells the group he has to go but will be back later - it would be days before he reunites with the Slayers.
Returning home, Panda takes the time off to partake in some relaxing meditation, as they ponder the words of the woman from the mists. The rest of the group will see them occasionally about the house, but for the first time since joining the group, Panda seeks some time alone.
At a loss for what to do when not wanted, Carly, Jaki and Ulalume return home and await their undeniably imminent summons to come to the town’s aid.

Rewards Granted

Magic Items

1 portable hole filled with assorted bones
Amulet of proof against detection and location
Boots of elvenkind
Sentinel shield
Figurine of wondrous power, silver raven

Mundane Items

4 assorted art objects worth 250gp each

bronze crown,

gold ring set with bloodstones,

brass mug with jade inlay,

gold bird cage with electrum filligree

Coins

140 Platinum
1700 Gold
9000 Silver
900 Copper

Report Date

12 Aug 2022

Primary Location

Respite - The Jewel in the Desert

Related Characters

• Gijak Opash
• Orros, Gnomish Bartender.
• Petula, The White Bishop