XXXI. A Terrible Choice

General Summary

Having teleported from the Fire Giants' Fortress through the chain, the party now found themselves in a white stone plaza, before a massive statue Ivar Stal. Birds flew through the air, and the morning bells of Ivargrad rang out. Alizeh and Akwele scanned the crowd, eventually pointing out a group of hooded figures. The party ran to confront them, but before they could make it any further, Nedylene activated the Ashmaker and began to flee. A countdown started: the party would have about thirty-six seconds before it detonated. The rest of Nedylene's Drow followers stayed to prevent the party from interfering with its course. Lady Kohinoor used the last of her Emboldening Bond on herself and her friends before they could scatter. Akwele once again began getting pincushioned by poisoned crossbow bolts from the Drow. He sounded the bronze Horn he bought from Zendras and summoned fifteen spirit warriors from Valhalla, who aided the party in the fight. Seconds after they arrived, the Red Dragon Chargrax showed up as well, bellowing that the party would pay for killing its mate. Several of the warriors climbed up and attacked the Dragon from its back. Lady Kohinoor directed two of them to carry the Ashmaker toward her from its place at the base of the statue of Ivar Stal, while she ran to meet them in the middle. Chargrax unleashed a rain of fiery breath upon all assembled, and as the fire touched the Ashmaker, the countdown advanced by six seconds. Achilla slew the Dragon in a single turn, taking his head as her trophy. As the rest of the party continued occupying the Drow, Dev tried to Dispel the magic on the Ashmaker, hoping that would stop the countdown; but the spell fizzled and failed. Mathazar tried to figure out what went wrong, but wasn’t able to concentrate with all the fighting going on around him. As the counter reached its final six seconds, Kohinoor finally stepped up to it.

“You’ve already done your best.”
-Akwele Who Passed Through Fire and Frost

Akwele had accepted that the party was likely to die here, but Kohi had one last-ditch effort up her sleeve. As she stepped up to Ashmaker, she asked Valoryn to describe Gloomspire to her. As he did, she tried to picture the place in her mind: a place which had already been recently destroyed, and presumably only still contained enemy Drow, if any life remained at all. If there was anything she could do, she wanted to do it. Anywhere would be better than here. With her helmet glowing, the Ashmaker teleported away just as flames began to lick out, but Kohinoor could not be certain it made it to its intended destination accurately based on description alone. After the Ashmaker was teleported away, Valoryn managed to kill Nedlyne. He tried to place the tracking ring given to him by the Mindflayers on her finger after the fact, but the ring melted into a black goo. A booming voice projected to each of the party members' minds:

"D O O M."
-unknown voice

Obmi and his Fire Giant retinue showed up then, hoping to reclaim the Ashmaker for themselves. When Obmi realized that the Ashmaker was gone, he cursed and turned himself invisible as he let his giants take care of fighting the party. Alizeh cast Faerie Fire to reveal his form, which Valoryn gleefully took advantage of. Dev used the opportunity to use the spell scroll of Control Fire Giant to charm one of Obmi’s guards, forcing him to fight his allies and creating confusion in the ranks. As the fight began to turn in favor of the party, Obmi tried to use a miniature chain to teleport away, but as he did, Dev used the Ring of Psychic Scream given to him by the Mindflayers, accompanied by a song…

Sent into the great unknown,
Silence when the danger’s gone,
Chances given, chances blown,
Save the people, save the throne. Hope and despair, combined is grey,
All that's left is hope and pray,
Nothing really left to say,
Live to fight another day. Burning, all-consuming flame,
Untold damage, endless pain,
Mind is numb, heart is same,
Ask forgiveness, keep the shame.
-Devaughn Lightpaw

As he spoke the last of the words, the heads of Prince Obmi and the remaining giants (save for one) exploded into fountains of blood. With the battle finally over, the Imperial guards of Ivargrad swooped down upon the scene from the backs of Hippogriffs, demanding an answer to the carnage below. Princess Kohinoor stepped forward to explain, providing the letter of summons from Iorvus Great-Dane as proof that the party was merely completing their mission...