The True Victory

Era beginning/end

The Umbral Knights faced the Dread King in open combat whilst the Bastion fended off his endless hordes and finally destroyed him. Ardeth made the final blow with Dread's Bane.   Ushering a new era of peace, Drahz destroyed Dread's Bane and banished it to the Lady of Pain to be punished whilst the true heroes gave the dread king's crown to Dashilla the Dark Queen and she returned to the Feywild with one of the group choosing to join her in order to test themselves against the strongest fey and also to ensure Dashilla keeps her promises to the party.

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With their weapons ready and their abilities in place, the party joined plans to face the Dread King within the bastion.   They noticed very quickly that, whilst most of the generals in the Bastion (Fletch and the Cannoneer among them), there were two dissenters and cowards who planned on moving out to sea to escape the dread king rather than fight him on land.   Drahz was disgusted to find that one of them was the leader of the Fellblades, a Hobgoblin warband who once had a strong relationship with the Grymhooks.   The battle meeting ended with the Fellblade leader refusing to join the cause whilst the party convinced the other dissenter to try as there was no doubt they were unsafe at sea. The True Heroes follows the Fellblade leader to the docks of the Bastion where he prepared his Hobgoblins to leave, Drahz immediately could tell the Fellblade soldiers didn't want to leave and so he shouted an insult at the Fellblade leader in goblin who simply gave him a puzzled look, he didn't understand Goblin...   Drahz used this to instill courage in the Fellblades and encouraged them to turn on their leader, for he was not worthy of the leading the Fellblades.   At this point the leader revealed himself to be Rowen Ashe the Judge for the Dread King and as the party went to attack him he vanished with laughter.   Now, with the Fellblades joining the Bastion defence, the party put in their final preparations and, in a moment of clarity, Ardeth opened The God's Chest and freed the god's within. The party then received boosts and upgrades to their power:

• Coll spoke to Melora and revealed his deep desire to protect and fix nature and the devastation the Dread King forced upon it, to which Melora gifted him druidic powers.
• Proto was worked on and tinkered with by the Cannoneer and fitted with a variety of magical upgrades.
• Drahz agreed to find purpose and extend his service with the Lady of Pain though was also forced into agreeing that Camille was to be punished... even if it meant sending him to the Lady of Pain along with Ardeth as his vessel.
• Ardeth officially became the champion of Kord and knew that he had her side in the battle with the dread king and camille.
• Allea thought of her friends and made a promise to herself that she would be strong enough to save them all. Unlocking her potential as a monk.

The next day, as the Dread King attacked the Bastion, the party summoned him to them and fought him atop his spire where, along with the Judge and The Fiend, they finally defeated him after a long and perilous battle.   After that, Ardeth finally faced Camille in a battle of wills and came out the victor, handing the sword to Drahz who finally destroyed Dread's Bane and freed Ardeth of the curse upon the weapon.   The party left the spire and moved past the celebration and jubilation to seek out Dashilla the Dark Queen , they gifted her The Dread King's Crown with one final condition added by Proto. She had to take him with her to the Feywild and she had to give him one more day with the party, there were two reasons for this. 1) Proto wanted to explore the feywild and see what creatures they had that he could battle. 2) He wanted to supervise Dashilla and, if she started to develop the habits of the Dread King, he would put her down.   Dashilla agreed and the party used the hunter's tears to spend one final night together reminiscing in the hunter's cabin before they moved on to their new lives in the new world.