Heroes Never Die

Life, Milestone

After five years stranded in the elemental planes, The Bonner Boys have grown into different people. Each, in turn, is confronted with the possibility of returning to Loom in the material plane, awakening long-dormant drives.

A lone figure swims through the ocean depths. Daryl Berry cuts through the water with the force of his dragon wings until he comes upon a shipwreck and a massive Kraken beside it. Daryl casts invisibility on himself and stalks the kraken. It bellows to nobody in particular for the green man to open up the way to the material plane like he did his brother. Before it can sense him, Daryl starts the slow journey back up to the surface, relying on his magical saxophone to allow him to breathe underwater. He finally emerges from the surface of the Plane of Water and flies toward the Pearl Tower.   A bird crows and, in a little cabin, Indigo Fury stirs. He spends his days on his floating earth mote in the skies of the Plane of Air tending to his garden. He shovels compost into a new patch, cleans off some fruits to eat for lunch, and shares it with some animals on the mote. He goes on until the sun sets and he goes to bed. The life of adventure is behind him.   A boat made of brass sails over the choppy Sea of Fire on the Plane of Fire. It fires upon another boat crewed by Azers. Mirian Fireraven absentmindedly fiddles with his Ring of Fire Protection as the attack proceeds. He takes hold of a rope along several other pirates and swings onto the other ship. They quickly defeat the Azers and drop a plank down so that their Ifrit captain, Vanifer, can step onto the ship. She slyly slaps Mirian on the butt. He bears it, keeping an eye on her engagement ring that goes with his. Vanifer and Mirian question the Azers, eventually getting information on a recently abandoned Horizon Walker base known as Weeping Colossus.   A blindfolded old medusa hammers away at a piece of armor at his forge. Strings span across the cave in which he works to allow him to find his way around. For Danger Grassyash, this is all incredibly inconvenient. He and the medusa; Marlos, his blacksmith mentor, get into an argument about the strings. They’re there so Marlos can keep the blindfold on and not turn Danger to stone. Marlos gives Danger a delivery to make to the City of Jewels.   Daryl returns to The Pearl Tower and confers with some Tritons. The only place left in the Plane of Water where a route back to the material could be is The Isle of Dread, a place constantly surrounded by a powerful storm. But they have seen a similar storm around a pirate fleet terrorizing the plane. Daryl flies for it. Once there he goes invisible and sneaks around the ship until he finds a locked room containing “the storm beast.” He breaks in and finds Birinj. Alive. While the Kraken attempted to drown him, it dumped him through a portal into the Plane of Water. He was found by the pirates and imprisoned until now. Together Daryl and Birinj destroy the fleet and fly off together.   Indigo wakes up in the middle of the night sensing something feels off. His mote is completely silent. He sees strange silent mummified men observe at its edges. He steps outside and finds The Chronomental. It surrounds Indigo and shows him all of his failures; the fall of the Circle of the Moon, Kava’s death and Samson’s corruption by the Moonlit King, the dead witch doctor from his tribe they found at the forge, Aarden becoming a Warlock and his descent, the eclipse, turning into a dragon and attacking his friends, promising to defeat Virescent but never even trying, the Moonlit King, Mirian’s death and Vaerand on fire, taking the Moonlit King’s deal and forcing Braes to consume the shadow seed, betraying and trapping the party in the Shadowfell, Emerline and his shadow unit, Arconis dead, Tillon captured and left with the paladins, and of course torturing Emerline, and the final slamming of the staff that led them into this situation in the first place. It’s a lot, but the message is clear. Indigo knows that everything he’s done has led to pain and turmoil.   Mirian puts together a shore party to raid Weeping Colossus, a dungeon in the guise of a stone giant crying lava. The shore party braves traps and fights until they come across a room full of crystal balls. Mirian finds himself drawn toward one and looks through it into the Shadowfell. He sees the Moonlit King, and his most pure desire for revenge returns. He hadn’t felt it in some time. He clings to life now. They find a Guardian Naga who tells them of The Quarter Crucible, a route back to the material plane. Mirian doesn’t want to go, but Vanifer senses his need and tells him to go. She’ll be waiting for him to return.   In the City of Jewels, Danger sees a mummified man watching him. These things have been observing him since The Chronomental was born. He attempts to engage with this one and accidentally finds Jett. She’s barely escaped the Horizon Walker’s massive defeat at the edge of the plane. Almost on queue, an earthquake breaks open the ceiling above the city. The Devil Legion pours in to decimate the city. Danger and Jett climb high up a ceiling-scraper to escape out the opening the devils made but they run head-on into Ia’Affrat, a devil commander made up of millions of fire-wasps. He tells Danger he’s the reason they’ve come. The devils consider Danger a prophet of their goddess Takhisis ever since he made contact through the Orb of Dragonkind. Ia’Affrat wants Danger to find the way back to the material plane and use it to bring the devil legion there. Danger refuses, so Ia’Affrat demands the orb. Instead, Danger attacks. They fight Ia’Affrat, but he just swarms around their weapons. In a hail mary play, they leap out of the building and trigger its total collapse. Danger and Jett escape the City of Jewels as it burns. She tells him of the Quarter Crucible, the road home. They agree they need to escape the plane with the orb.   The Chronomental starts to show Indigo more. Bonding with Braes, stopping Sable and Meriele at Bard’s Haven with a moonbeam, gifting Mirian his first wooden mask, freezing the pilot light in the forge, his first summon of giant owls to fight the dwarves, saving everyone when the Berserker left them for dead, curing Samson’s eclipse corruption, burning Meriele and the tree, being named a Hero of Bonner, turning Danger into a giant ape, the council of dragons, shutting down the portals. He has done great good as well, and he can again. Then it shows him here on the island, living out his days, dying, and then all of the stars going out followed by nothingness. It shows him the other Fury and implies his own druid’s tree is out there somewhere. It shows him Lawrence Aarden. There’s still work to do.   Indigo packs up his stuff. He’s known about the Quarter Crucible for years, and now he shapeshifts into a bird to fly to it.