The Adventure so Far 16: Breaching the Heavens
General Summary
Ozul's Journal - Entry number 904: Breaching the Heavens
Having spent many long weeks reading, recording, and researching the whereabouts of the amulet, I have finally found it. All that stood in my way, was a means of getting to it. Though I spent a large majority of that time without blood for sustenance, my relentless pursuit of knowledge proved fruitful. The amulet had been taken by the celestials, and hidden in their realm. To prevent another like Loredana or Hacaan from rising to power. Though their efforts will all be for naught.
I recruited Ivasaar and Llwelyn to my cause. From what my research has told me, I would need the backup. In turn, they recruited that mage that constantly forgets things (I've forgotten his name, ironic), a talking spellbook, and a gnome to pilot our airship. The only problem now, was finding the portal that would take us to the Celestial Realm. Luckily Ivasaar's silver tongue seemed to prove useful and he was told that the mayor of Malicity, Doubt, would have information for us.
So we went to Malicity, spoke to Doubt, and he did indeed have the knowledge we needed. Though he warned us that the celestials can see all things when at a close distance, so advised we avoid getting too close. Furthermore, we needed to hide the ship from sight, as supposedly the skies around the portal were filled with celestials. For this, he granted us a staff that could make our airship entirely invisible. A useful staff indeed.
With this information and a means to hide the ship, we continued forth toward the portal. Toward that foul realm of light. Yet as we drew closer, I felt my essence grow weaker. I thought it a symptom of not having enough blood and yet... it was something else.
Kathaan had pulled my soul from my body to speak with me upon Veggol once more. She seemed intent on seeing this through, and informed me that her sword was the key to shattering the barrier that would prevent our passage through the portal. Yet even with this information, something still bugged me, gnawing at the back of my mind. So I told her I had a vision of her when my family was burning, when my son screamed out for my aid, when there was nothing left of my wife but her ring and her hand mirror. I asked if she was the cause of this. She did not speak, but I could feel her murderous gaze upon me. Then she warned I had best focus on what was important, the task at hand. I took this as her saying she was not responsible, if only to lessen her anger. The last thing I needed was her demons sent after me before my time was up.
I fell back to my body with the worst headache imaginable, and 10 miles left. It was drawing closer, all those weeks of research and soon I would have that amulet.
When we were 3 hours away, I hid the ship from view, though curiously it did not hide the entities aboard the ship. Llwelyn helped with quieting the ship and providing a way that our pilot could move evasively to avoid detection, though the information seemed to confuse our pilot at first. Luckily, Ivasaar's silver tongue proved useful again, and he described what Llwellyn meant better, and he was able to hide himself from view.
Yet despite this, we were detected by a foul celestial. We put everything we had into it, ballista shots and magic, yet it called upon its allies to aid. Llwelyn seemed to have more power than I gave them credit for, as they were able to conjure a storm to smite our foes. Ivasaar struggled in combat, perhaps he is better for talking than fighting. Aiming with an invisible ballista proved too difficult, so I instead chose to use my sword. I was able to succefully harm one of the celestials that had gotten too close. This strike felt different though, I could feel my sword sapping magic from the celestial, and bestowing that magic upon me. Using this magic I was able to strike the celestial once more, and used this fatal strike to drain the celestial of it's essence entirely. I may have damaged the ship with these strikes, but it does not matter, we survived.
As the airship drew closer to the portal, I walked to the very front of the ship. I drank a potion to grant me more strength and held my sword out to breach the barrier. With my own strength and the power of Kathaan behind me, I was able to shatter the barrier between the mortal realm and the celestial.
The Celestial Realm was... different to say the least. It didn't seem real, it was... alien. Yet there was something familiar here. The amulet pulled at my essence from a tower far from our airship. The amulet would have to wait, we needed to secure a path first.
Llwelyn found a place to hide our teleportation circle, and the mage got to work. Yet not long after we started, a larger celestial appeared to stop us. Ivasaar was too weak to fight, so I had to fight this celestial myself. I went to face it, to at least buy time for the teleportation circle to form.
As the circle neared completion, a much larger celestial appeared. If my research was correct, this was the exarch Iaoth, and we were in great danger. The exarch stopped time, at least for everyone but us. So we used this time to escape, boarding the airship and going into the teleportation circle to return to the island.
Now with a breach to the celestial realm, the amulet is within reach. But I will need more people. With Iaoth now aware of our presence and that we have a path between the Celestial Realm and the mortal realm, we must be vigilant in our next incursion to the Celestial Realm.
Report Date
16 Mar 2023
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