No, you're wrong uncle, we won't lose. Because we're fucking PERSICORUM!
- Thordak gives the rallying cry as he fights Vraxan.
While the party tried to discuss and dissect their knowledge and plans in the Temple of The Stringed they eventually came to the agreement that their best and fastest course of action would be to engineer a large enough event and spectacle that Mimsi, Olympia and Ez would be able to steal the crystal orb that
Vola was using to control the Stringed.
In order to draw out the
Utrunks and cause a distracting spectacle Thordak took Kodo and Fen as his entourage and backup and marched to the fighting pits of
Vraxan and
Vola where they challenged Vraxan, via sending stone, to decide who would control the Utrunk clan and they framed it as Thordak taking a chance to claim vengeance on Vraxan for the death of his father. Vola and Vraxan agreed and the trio of challengers very quickly shouted and spread around town the news of the fight that was happening, drawing massive crowds to the fighting pits.
Hearing the commotion, the burglary group of the party decided to wait on the outside of the arena until the fight started where they could then sneak up on Vola and take the crystal orb.
Thordak stood at the side of the arena whilst Vraxan approached, flanked by Orc Blade warriors and notably bulky and muscular, wielding a bright and powerful greatsword in one hand and, in the other, wielding a black colossal scimitar; the blade of Shagthok.
The battle started and Thordak immediately came to realise that this was a fight he stood almost no chance of winning, Vraxan showed himself to be incredibly powerful both in terms of his skill with dual greatswords as well as his new-found knowledge of magic as he used his power to tear into Thordak before telekinetically launching him into a pool of acid, in response, Thordak began to take the fight seriously by going into a rage and drinking his 'Giant's Blood' potion that he'd had since
Edmonton.
Making the most of the spectacle, Mimsi, Ez and Olympia snuck towards Vola and, with Mimsi invisible she managed to get close enough to snatch the Orb from Vola... however, in that moment Vola turned and SAW Mimsi.
A grapple contest ensued in which Mimsi won thanks to the help of Olympia's portence and, a moment later, the two of them dimension doored away from the stage... closely followed by Vola.
Vola attempted to stop Mimsi who, upon peering into the crystal ball, realised she could either change and manipulate it by convincing the Stringed that the party were invincible or she could free the stringed of it's influence and destroy the crystal ball.
Running up a nearby building, Mimsi slammed into the crystal ball and shattered it, not hesitating in freeing the entity. This frustrated Vola who, along with a resurrected Merc, entered into combat with Mimsi and Olmypia.
Meanwhile, the orcs in the stadium broke out of the stupor that was held over them and began to argue and fight eachother. Kodo, Fen and Ez all came under attack but did their best to start convincing the orcs to support Thordak who, now with the playing field evened agaisnt Vraxan, began to push his advantage and take the fight to his uncle.
Mimsi and Olympia continued their fight against Vola and Merc with Vola (believing Mimsi to be the bigger threat) casting Feeblemind on Mimsi and removing her ability to communicate or approach the fight with intellect. However, this did not stop Mimsi and Olympia from cornering Vola and attempting to incapacitate her using stunning strike and counterspell.
Ez tried to use healing to support Thordak and, though he succeeded, Vraxan commanded his remaining loyal soldiers to slaughter Ez, they surrounded and immediately began to deal significant damage to the druid healer. Kodo managed to incapacitate an orc who attempted to fight him before discovering that the orc believed Shagthok, Thordak's father, to still be the leader of the clan and that Thordak was still a child, Kodo broke the news to the orc in the worst possible way and left the orc stunned and confused. Kodo then moved to support Ez in his fight along with several other orcs who were angrily siding with Persicorum, seeing through Vraxan's lies.
Mimsi and Olympia, despite being significantly weakened, were doing well in battling Vola and Merc, however, they were both running out of resources and Merc was continuously causing heavy damage to Mimsi who looked close to being taken out of the fight; that was until Olympia used a high level
Life Transference spell to almost completely heal Mimsi and allow them to keep the fight going.
Fen quelled many of the orcs before deciding, using his fey step, to enter the ring and support Thordak in the fight with Vraxan, casting fireball onto the orc chief with minimal effect, however, in coming too close Vraxan saw an opportunity to hurt and distract Thordak and instead targeted Fen with his attacks, including using one of his action surges in an attempt to kill the elf wizard.
Fen managed to survive the onslaught in the first round and Ez healed Fen before declaring that Vraxan was incapable of killing the party and that, with their support and healing, they were practically invincible. This attempt to goad Vraxan backfired heavily as it only made the orc chief focus more on Fen and, in the next round, Vraxan knocked Fen unconscious before throwing his body into one of the blood pits in order to fully kill the elf wizard.
This moment seemed to have a massive impact on Ez who fell into a near shock state and moved to try to resurrect Fen as, before the druids eyes, the blood pit was engulfed in black and thick fire; fire straight from the abyss as it seemed Fen's patron
Drahz Grymhook was not so quickly willing to give up on his warlock.
Mimsi and Olympia continued their fight and wore down Vola significantly as Olympia continued to try and coax the orc into attacking her and not Mimsi. However, eventually, luck struck for the pair as Mimsi, after 5 attempts in a row, managed to use a stunning strike on Vola and left the orc locked and unable to act; buying both of them valuable time.
Fen fell into a dreaming state, dead once again. As he was falling he raged at his own ineptitude and inability to fight as well as his allies, frustrated at his weakness and how quickly he fell. Fen found himself coming close to the Chaos in their feminine form as the Chaos admitted they were disappointed but equally delighted with the unexpected nature of Fen's demise... however, as Fen braced himself to be forever kept by the Chaos, Draz intervened and the chaos' realm burned away, including the chaos itself who giggled and delighted at being foiled by Draz who loudly asked Fen if he was going to just allow Vraxan to get away with harming him.
Thordak continued to tear apart Vraxan in a rage as Vraxan then took aim at Ez and told Thordak to end the fight or he would target Ez next, Thordak loudly declared he would not stop and they would not lose, they were Persicorum after all and they were destined to keep fighting!
Ez moved forward and managed to drag Fen out and cast revivify on him, as Ez cast the spell he received a vision of a woman, a farm girl that he both recognised and had never met before as he watched her die in his arms; desperately unable to save her.
However, as Ez's diamond shattered in his hands, he looked down and saw Fen come back to life in his arms, burned but alive.
Seeing this, Vraxan moved to take out Fen once again but Thordak managed to, using his sentinel feat, remove Vraxan's head from his shoulders and killed the now-former chief of the Utrunks.
Mimsi and Olympia heard the silence of the pits for a moment before, along with Vola and Merc, they heard the overarching clamour of 'Thordak!' and 'Shagthok!' Vola seemed visibly to break down from knowing her husband had died and lunged at Olympia with her blade, stabbing the warforged. However, Mimsi used her wall running skills to jump above Vola and slam her spear into her chest, killing the woman and destroying the tether that kept Merc alive.
Thordak raised the blade of Shagthok and declared himself the new chief of the Utrunk clan before claiming that the orcs were free to make their choice... they could either remain in the clan and move with them in their new direction, under Shagthok's vision once more or they could leave... though he warned them that any orc that wished to fight would be slaughtered.
He then commanded every orc to find his two allies and Vola.
Meanwhile, Ez was still in a state of shock and, despite Fen's deep appreciation for saving him, felt he had to go to Mimsi and Olympia, taking flight to get to them as fast as possible.
Mimsi and Olympia stayed together until they saw Ez arrive who cast
Greater Restoration on Mimsi and watched as she dashed off to the temple of the stringed, with Ez and Olympia in pursuit.
Thordak carried Fen alongside Kodo as they moved through the clan land toward the temple of the stringed, as they moved they saw news of what had happened was spreading throughout the clan and he also noticed that several orcs were being dragged out of an underground space and, led by a female, they were apparently taking charge of the orcs.
Mimsi managed to get to the temple and saw it was dark with one chair and one lever simply titled 'The Truth'. Mimsi pulled it and was shown a display of the loneliness of the Stringed who was tricked into staying in their own world by the chaos but still managed to be dragged out first where they founded a group known as the Woven Providence, Mimsi watched as misfortune after misfortune befell the chaos who accepted every catastrophe as their 'fate', including the destruction of their entire cult and them being trapped inside their realm for centuries to millenia.
The Chaos then revealed they killed their cult after Vola convinced them the cult were fated to die and they gave this truth to Mimsi as they warned her it may be that they are fated to kill all they come across.
Mimsi decided to instead reassure the stringed that she would stand by it and that they would follow their own fate together, just as her party arrived and were reunited after their epic battle.
Comments