Pursuit of Passage Keeper

Character descriptions of the cult members provided by their players:
Munkey: Atman and Mrtyu
BaradEllil: Malbrix and Malreus

Cast of Characters

The Cult of the Passage Keeper 

Atman: Atman is a unique construct created by the Passage Keeper to house thousands of souls for the Death Cult's purposes. Its skeletal remains, including a horse skull head, give it a fearsome and otherworldly presence. Although it has access to a vast array of abilities and knowledge, Atman's lack of personality is in itself a defining trait. Its dedicated solely to the cult's maintenance, leaving it free to channel the souls it contains for the benefit of the Death Cult. As a lore bard, Atman weaves magic to enhance its allies and hinder its foes, always with a singular focus on achieving the cult's ultimate goal of uniting with the Passage Keeper.

Malbrix: Malbrix is a githzerai hailing from the Plane of Mechanus. They found themselves there after a planar intrusion opened near their home settlement in the Plane of Limbo. While in Mechanus, Malbrix' natural powers as a githzerai were inverted from chaos to order, and they grew in arcane strength drawing magic from the plane itself. Malbrix chose to travel to the prime material plane to seek out disturbances in balance caused by the warring of the gods. They ended up in service of a death cult.. choosing to remain due to complications that may arise should the sought after artifact fall into the wrong hands.

Malreus:  Malreus is a fiend-born tiefling, specializing in drawing iterations of fate to guide his blade. He joined the cult of the Passage Keeper to draw upon soul energy to strengthen himself and further his quest to full fiendhood. Bearing a swift elegant blade and donned with perfectly fitted scalemail, he quickly darts around the battlefield, slashing through anything in his path... and also paths that could have been his.

Mrtyu: Mrytu, the Fallen Aasimar Death Cleric/Hexblade, towers at 7 feet tall with a lithe and almost ghostly form. She was raised as a Hollow One by the Passage Keeper, who became her patron and guide. She wields a menacing scythe, its blade glinting with an eerie blue aura of cold death. The weapon is large, almost as tall as she is, and its curved, serrated blade is designed to rip the souls from her enemies. Mrytu wears a centuries-old tattered black dress adorned with the symbols of her cult, a testament to her devotion. Her obsession with the Passage Keeper is absolute, and it is evident in her every being. On the battlefield, she is a fearsome presence, striking with otherworldly strength and precision. Her attacks are calculated and precise, designed to inflict maximum damage and pain.

The Champions of the Old Gods

The champions are hidden by default to not spoil the story.
Show Spoiler

The Champion of Elgonga, The Fair Judge : A 10ft tall humanoid being a golden liquid metal, the champion was capable of absorb, negating, and deflecting almost any magic thrown at it.

The Champion of Gaosh, The Tameless : A thunderbird of immense size, the creature wavored between a physical form and that of plasma and fire. It brought with it darkened clouds wherever it went.

The Champion of Jais, The Remembrance : A skilled arcanist a sage capable of advising the party.

The Champion of Lune, The Unseen Change : First seen as a moon elf wizard partaking in the intial binding ritual, the champions' true form was that of a moonstone dragon.

The Champion of Malg, The Strife-Ender : A hound archon blessed by its god as both paladin and ranger.

The Champion of Sol, The Mighty Light : A solar of great power that shown like the sun.

The Champion of Thelbissy, The Futuremaker : An arcanist and artist of such great skill that they could criticize their work mid production.

The Champion of Vistul, The Hopebloomer : A fey druid that controlled life and balance all at once.

The Legend

Prelude to Pursuit

This story takes place within a dark time of the Ages of Malpos. With each turning of the age, many great and world changing events beckon one's end and the other's beginning. Rarely, an age severs as it's own end. It is in these times that even greatly significant occurrences can be lost in the masses. This story focuses on one such event lost to history.

The Age of Gods was a time of hundred fractured divinities from the originals. Facets, aspects, hues, and shadows of gods were worshiped and in that worship, pantheons grew. Of all the emotions, hate, fear, and ill will spread fastest of all in a world so divided. Following the food of sentience, the darker gods grew faster and more fervently than the good. The groundwork of the Age of gods foreshadowed a doom that the Old Gods would not let come to pass. Taking control, possibly for the final time, the Old Gods themselves directed their mortals to a bloody solution.

Th Age of Abolition, among other things, was a culling of the new gods as the old attempted to protect their creation and maintain control. A series of holy wars, witch hunts, and slaughters occurred in the attempted extinction of the old gods' darker aspects. It was during this time that the last divine wielder of Passage Keeper, the scythe of the reaper, was slain. With the fall of Nerul, the artifact would fall to the prime material outside of divine hands.

The gods called upon heroes to go into the tundra of the Storm Broken Lands where the god had fallen to gather up the sentient artifact and lock it away from the temptation of mortals. Unfortunately, the Passage Keeper had already found and connected with those who would worship it. A cult had grown as a fracture from Nerul's followers that instead worshiped the artifact itself. In it's arrival to the prime material, it called out to its followers to be claimed.

The Cult of the Passage Keeper

Among the cult of the Passage Keeper were four leaders that would take up this calling. The most prominent of them was Mrtyu, a fallen Aasimar of death that worshiped the Passage Keeper as a god. Following Mrtu was a bone construct Atman that trapped the spirits of the dead to channel their life force, magic, power, knowledge, and skill as a tool for the cult. While these first two were faithful to the cult for the glory of their idol itself, there were others that were symbiotic with the cult. The winged tiefling Malreus capable of projecting it's own soul fought for the cult for the ultimate goal of being exalted into full devilhood. Finally, the fate empowered Githzerai Malbrix was infused with the planes themselves and gave that power to the cult for it be strengthened back in conjunction.

First Pursuit: First Sight

When the cult learned of the Passage Keeper's entrance into the Prime Material, the began their plans to take it. Fortuitously, the artifact lay within the tundras north of the cult's stronghold. The cult was centered in the permafrost desert east of the Immreth Mountains and they would be able to arrive in a short number of days upon their gloomstalker mounts. Before going, though, a communion with Passage Keeper guided their actions.

When asked, “Have you been taken?” the Passage Keeper's sole response was “Entrapt”. The cult hypothesize that it could be buried within the ice. When asked, “Are you Being Moved?” it denied. Finishing with a final, “Do you sense a large number of people around you?”, it responded with “Few”.

Having gained at least a minor sense of the situation, the cult headed out. Flying long hours, the four members managed to arrive in the area after three days of a forced flight. The hours were long and wore on the party but by the time they arrived, some of the exhaustion was mediated. Malbrix was minorly tired and Mrtyu was one step worse. An expenditure of diamond dust and some magic brought the death priest up to equal footing with the githzerai.

Having crossed the glacial tundra, the party found a small inlet of rolling snowy plains in a glacial alcove. Deep into it, a light directed their path. Closing in, they discovered it to be three separate lights. Overhead, a electric raptor soared in and out of the clouds. A thunderbird. It circled over top a cathedral of crystaline ice risen from the tundra to protect the work of the heroes that got here before the cultists. Finally, out front of the cathedral, a unit of 8 glowing and firey angels stood guard.

Knowing that flying their gloomstalkers the rest of the way in would lead to attacks from below and above, the companions stayed atop the glacier and moved around until they found a nearby ravine. Within it, Atman conjured the cult leaders secret home from the ether to store the gloomstalkers for safe keeping. If expeled from their dimension feasting hall, the mounts were instructed to tear the dispel-ing caster apart and stay until retrieved. Unless thoroughly damaged, the mounts should respect the command.

The four cultists then snuck from the crevice and towards the icy cathedral under the snowblinding guard of Atman's magic. Upon arrival, the four found the guarding angels to be split between bolstering battalion leaders and the fiery and radiant smiteguard. Not wanting to give away their position to whoever was working inside the cathedral, the quartet discussed option. Unfortunately, breaking into the cathedral would attract attention and they couldn't afford to be attack on all fronts. They would have to take these angels out before continuing. While they discussed this, the leader of the angels called out that the preparations were finishing inside and to prepare to head out in formation. They would be heading to Sol's Zenith where his champion would finish the artifact's sealing in the place of power. It was now or never.

The cultists surged out to strike against the surprised angels. Atman startyed with its enchanted concertina to force one angel to dance but it was unfortunately immune to the charming compulsion. Malbrix faired far better by climbing up the icy boulder the group had hid behind to banish two of the four angels he had wanted to. It was tight with a few deep scares but he would manage to maintain the banishment through the entire battle.

A synaptic static tore through the remaining angel's mentally while Malreus fought the armed and armored angels in close quarters. Spirit-teleporting around the field, he managed to stay ahead of the angels and strategically positioned whether that was evading flanking or moving to aid a cultist caster. Atman also feeblminded the angelic commander to steal any strategy from their side as celestial fireballs were countered time and again. Mrytu smote her way across the field with hexblade and spiritual scythe as he long forsaken ancesters fell before her.

As the angel battalion was slain before them and just a moment was taken to magically recuperate and seal the banishment, the quartet of cultists turned their attention to the cathedral doors and those still within.The crackle of the Thunderbird overhead foretold it's descent. It had seen the conflict below and now the cultist quartet had no more time to wait. As the Thunderbird dove down, Malbrix conjured a cloud cover to obscure their forms as they entered the cathedral.

Within the magically conjured temple, the cultists found a long hall before them. Two sets of stairs led down to the main level as they stood on a balcony that wrapped around it. In the center of the hall, the heroes of the gods stood finishing a ritual and at the ready. Within a round center dais, four humanoid wearvers of magic stood around a sphere made of mithral with rune encrusted bands. The champions of Jais, Thelbissy, Lune, and Vistul were finishing the last stages of the binding to prepare the Passage Keeper for Transport. Around the ritual space were three other heroes. Centered stood a hound archon at the ready, picking up his greatsword to charge the threat to his mission as the Champion of Malg. To the right hovered a planetar of Sol while to the Elgonga's Champion stood at sentry duty. The champion of Elgonga had the form of a large man but with no features across its liquid metal body.

As the three champions on guard duty struck out towards the intruders, the cultists struck faster. Mrytu Conjured the spirits of the dead in a damaging aura around herself. Atman then immediately dimension doored the pair of them into the center of the ritual space to disrupt as many of the casters as possible. As the damaging spirits surged through the area, the outer circle shimmer a moment as an unseen Wall of Force that was supposed to protect the ritualists was dropped. Malbrix launched a synaptic static into the now miraculously unwarded area to tear through the space as well. Had Atman and Mrtyu not acted thusly, the wall would have been discovered by Malbrix's artillery. Notably, none of the magic that emenated towards Elgonga's Champion seemed to effect them.

The opening actions of the cultists would shape the rest of the encounter for good or ill. While the aggressive act was strategically sound to attempt to free the Passage Keeper immediately, it also opened up other doors. Where the four companions originally only had four heroes to fight, moving around them to disrupt the ritual made it clear that the ritualists were not safe to simply work. Some of those champions abandoned the ritual to defend the others. While the ritual's completion would be slowed, they had to defend themselves. One of the two ritualists to move towards defense was the pale, elven champion of Lune. That is, until Lune's champion showed their true form by enlarging into a moonstone dragon. It was in that moment that the cultists knew that they had MessedUpTM.

As the dragon lashed out with it's serpentine tail time and again, Mrytu was swept from her feet and pummeled to the ground. In frustration, Mrtyu could hear the sentience of the Passage Keeper state that they only had to eliminate the Champion of Sol to prevent it's immediate sealing at the nearest temple. The Champion of Jais dispelled the conjured aura of ghosts. Malbrix toook shardlike blasts from Elgonga's champion and was cut down by the angel of Sol. Malreus, who had attempted to solo the champion of Malg, quickly was doubleteamed by the heroes of Sol and Malg. It came to be realized that challenging the title of Champion had been earned by each representative and seeking to engage as many as possible was a BadIdeaTM

Once Atman and Malbrix had a moment to react to their repercussions, Atman had Dimensioned Door the pair back out into the snow as far away as possible. Malreus slowly pulled back in retreat but would be hounded the whole way by the pair of champions that would eventual bring him down upon the landing all of the angels had been slain on not more than a minute ago. In the distance, Atman and Mrytu saw the tiefling get beheaded by the hound archon as the planetar of sol streaked towards them across the tundra.

The cult's mission was about to be dead before it began. They couldn't run. They had a safe house in the crags but that didn't matter if they couldn't get to it. A Continued mission was not worth it without the whole party. Half the team couldn't do what the whole team had so badly flubbed. The objective changed once again to salvage. Atman warped back into the cathedral to grab the body of Malbrix magically stabilized by their pendant before warping back outside to hide the body in the rocks.

While Atman worked, Mrtyu tried to fly back to the cathedral to grab Malreus' body. She had not calculated how fast the champion of Sol was rocketing toward her. Not even quarter of the way back, the angel passed the halfway point out. In fear she turned back for self preservation. Once more, though, running was not an option. The angel quickly chased her down, smote her from the air, and then seared the body with heavenly flames to bring her to a crisp, just bones held together by burnt skins, tendons, and cartilage.

As things continued downhill, the only thing that saved Atman's overly bold advances was the completion of the ritual and the heroic bands need to head out as soon as possible. Taking to the air, the party managed to proceed westward upon wings of their own or that of summoned mounts.

Atman, in time, would collect the charred body of Mrtyu and the body of Malreus. Bringing them and the unconscious Malbrix back to the extraplanar mansion, Atman was left to wait until Malbrix roused from his unconscious state. When he did so, the two mulled over their plans going forward.

The two remaining cultists had no means of immediately raising the fallen. While Atman was able to raise the dead, he could not restore their bodies. Based on the means of executions the champions had used, they were not willing to allow “simple” resurrections occur. If the pair wanted to risk calling on greater powers to resurrect the fallen, they would have to return to their headquarters and utilize their ritual chambers.

Retreat

The three day flight back was long and drawn out with the corpses. The return was a shock from the glamour the followers expected to the dismay of the failure. After looking at their options, the leaders of the cult decided that no other lives would be spent in raising the dead. The choice to sacrifice magical items rather than any of the horde of cultists would be one that might decide future deeds and paths forward. Would this be worth it?

Utilizing the balance of probability, Malbrix led Atman and the Priests through the proper rituals to exhanged a magical item for each of the fallen in exchanged for their resurrection. Malreus' flametongue sword was given for his life while Atman gave up his concertina for Mrtyu. These rituals would would occur over the next two days after the pair's return.

After the resurrections, the cult leaders turned their attention back toward the Passage Keeper. They had lost much time and it was likely nearing it's destination. It was destined for the legendary city of Vicugan and the temple of Sol's Zenith within. They would head out on the morrow. Overnight, the priests of the cult would scry on their enemy to ensure appropriate actions were taken.

Second Pursuit: Temple Run

The morning brought the news that the heroic band were still traveling over arid land. It would be a race to get to them before they could complete the secondary ritual at the temple to allow the champion of Sol permanently seal the Passage Keeper away. Taking to the sky, the quartet set out once more in chase of their idol. As they traveled the six days to and over the desert, they slowly offset their travel to push their travel times into the night to aid their gloomstalkers desert travel. The extraplanar mansion continued to protect them at night.

On their final approach, the flying troop passed through the hallucinatory wall that surrounded the lost city and the mesa-like plateua that surrounded it. Crevices and ravines covered the stone structure. Closing in on the mesa in the night, the companion saw a section of it leaking a sedimented black smoke that billowowed up like plum. That area was where the dwarven entrance was supposed to be. Flying over the top of it, they saw occassional flairs of light burst within and try to escape before being snuffed out. A slithering could be heard inn the smoke that muffled other sounds.

Malbrix blessed themselves with truesight to see through the darkness to look upon a horror below. The canyon was twisted by an aberrant force of black sand to grow spikes and writing tentacles of the same matter. Within a courtyard commenced the second half of a battle below. The champions of Sol and Jais were haggard as the fought a slimey behemouth of claw and tentacle. The abberant dragon menace had emerged from the open gates of Vicugan in pursuit of the champions which seemed fully distracted to notice the cultists above. Malreus took a quick dip into the shadow to realize the acidic nature of the smoke and structures upon himself and his mount.

The troop pulled back from the ledge to discuss tactics of whether they wanted slip by the fight to enter the city immediately. Malreus feared they would get there too damaged. They discussed feigning allegiance to one side of this fight or the other to take advantage of the situation. What they hadn't considered among all of their discussions was that the aberration of claw and tendril did not need help at all.

As the discussed, the black cloud began to suck back into the canyon. The dragon was returning back through the doors with no sign of the two champions even left after the acid brawl. Malbrix had neither seen nor heard any sign of a miraculous escape. Looking down into the courtyard, the troop saw the gates of the city begin to be shut an orichalcum laden priest whos flesh was the same matter as the cloud had been itself.

With the gates of Vicugan closing once more and the unknown occupants of the city calmly returning, questions began to form in the cultists minds. They had thought that they would be fighting their way into the city and through the temple to save the Passage Keeper. Instead, they had found only two of the Champions of the Old gods here fighting an unknown threat. They had not seen the rest of the heroes flying upon their approach. As they waited for morning, still no one could bee seen.

Seeking answers, the cultists turned to Communions with the Passage Keeper to help guide their quest. After the first set of questions, they pushed on for a second set to better undersand the situation.
Are you still on the move? Yes
Are there many around you? No
Has there been any conflict sense us? Yes
Are you still around the champions? Yes
Have you been taken into Vicugan? No
Are you still be taken to Sol's Zenith? No

Taking it in, the cultists realized what had happened. The heroes had planned on returning to the closest temple of the old gods to where Passage Keeper had been. They had not known that Vicugan, and therefore Sol's Zenith, had be overtaken by a malignant force. While their did not know how much effort the entire group had put into clearing the town, but it would end up taking too long. The Champions of Sol and Jais, possibly others, had stayed back to attempt to retake the temple. The rest had likely moved on with their quest to find another Temple of the Old Gods where that champion could finish the binding. There was one other temple on this continent. To the south, Vistul's Embrace lay upon the the bay of Harboromb.

Third Pursuit: Ambushes

The cult began their flight to the south the next day under communed guidance. The flight would long and hard, but they would be able to catch their enemies... maybe. The issue with Pursuit is any variance in routing could easily put hundreds of miles between them and their quarry. The running tactic would be to begin heading straight toward the Everstorm Sea and begin a series of communions at the start of each flying night.

After determining that the champions of the old gods would be going west of the Everstorm, the Communions shifted towards confirming new information. One by one, they confirmed that all of the champions minus those of Sol and Jais were still with the party. They learned that party had switched out their eagle steeds for more permanent celestial reinforcements. On the approach to the Nerm Warren Channel, they came to the conclusion that their land-route assumption had been false. They nearly missed the heroes on the sea's northern shore to realize the offset travel-days. Moreso, the heroic party was capable of resting mid-flight over open waters through use of a demi-plane.

With the heroes traveling in the day and themselves traveling at night, the cultists realized that they would not be able to ambush in the night. Rethinking their strategy, they would attempt to fly to the southern end of the Everstorm Sea to a mountainous peninsula. From there, they would watch for the band to cross overhead and attempt to cut them off there for an interception of the Mithral sphere containing the Passage Keeper.

During the first night's flight over the stormy waters, the companions were caught by surprise. Amid the stormy skies in the night, the Champions of Gaosh and Thelbissy attacked the party from invisibility. The artisitic caster opened the combat with a chain lighting that tore through half the party and their mounts. In time, the champion of Thelbissy would be seen to be riding an alicorn. The Thunderbird of Gaosh flew through the party with surges of electricity as well. It's charged peck's blasting not only into their target but attempting to leap toward the associated rider or mount as well.

The combat quickly turned into a series of elevation climbs and dives upon the gloomstalkers. Malbrix managed to earthbind the thunderbird early on, allowing for focused fire on the Champion of Thelbissy and her alicorn. Atman continued to temporarily immobilize one or the other to to open up a harsh beating. The fight continued one-sided until the alicorn died and Thelbissy managed to rewrite the script a little bit with a time stop. This extra time allowed her to save herself as well as break the bindings on the champion of Gaosh.

Despite this turn around, a personally flying Malreus managed to interpose between Thelbissy's champion and the rest of the party to prevent a prismatic spray from targeting Mrtyu, Atman, and they Mounts. As the combat came towards a close, the Champion of Gaosh was able to drop a gloomstalker from the sky to it's death while Malreus corksrewed towards the water's chasing Thelbissy's champion.

The champion of Thelbissy, in a last ditch effort to take out one of the cultists, broke their Staff of Divine Power in a retributive strike. In the eruption, Malreus was blasted from consciousness and fell to impact on the relatively near (10% the height from the start of the fight). Whether it was fate or the shock of the moment, though, Malreus sprung back to consciousness, sloppily climbing from the water on sodden wings (Natural 20 on first death save)

Mrtyu dove towards the gloomstalkers corpse as fast as safely done to expend some of the party's resources on revivifying the creature.

Tired from the fight, the cultists regrouped with a single thought. The champions of the old gods had attacked them directly....

The plan would remain the same. The cultists would attempt to get to the souther shore of the Everstorm Sea, get to the peninsula, and set up an ambush. They needed to prevent them from getting to Vistul's Embrace. The primary objective would be to get the the mithral banded cage the Passage Keeper was in. If they couldn't, at the very least they needed to take out Vistul's champion to lengthen the chase once again.

Despite having already traveled for a few hours this day, they decided that they still had a full night of travel left.. They would do the complete expanse of the waters in a single night. They would forced march further than they had in the past to ensure they would move beyond the enemy. They would... quickly succumb to exhaustion. However much they wanted to do it in a single night, they would soon find themselves unable to perform any mission if they continued. After Atman set up the mansion, Malbrix would spend more resources on two greater restorations to ensure the party could sleep off the rest of the exhaustion.

The next evening opened with another series of questions to the passage keeper to plan their assault.
Did they travel on the opposite side of the Everstorm Sea than us? No
Have we overtaken them? Yes
Will they make landfall at the peninsula we are headed towards? No
Have any of the fallen champions returned in any form on this plane? No
Are they following the same trajectory as us? No
Is their trajectory East of us? Yes
Is their trajectory headed to the Cove south of us? Yes
Are they making preparations to receive the box at Vistul's Embrace
Are they within 50 miles of Us? Yes

With the questions asked, the cult had a rough idea of where the champions were above them and what their true course was. While the cultists had predicted other more wavering routes, they would learn that the course now was a straight line from Vistul's embrace that tangented the western side of the Everstorm. The cultists adjusted their landing zone to establish their ambush embarked once more.

With the previous night's forced March, their new coastal destinal was less than four hours away. This gave them time to scan the general area to pick a general position on the coast between the eastern jungle marshes and the western jungle highlands. As opposed to below, they would fly 1500 feet up into the air and Atman once more established the manor. It was early today but it would allow them a place to rest mostly unseen. They would take turns at the open door looking out to watch for the champions.

Fourth Pursuit: Defensive Measures

The wait was long with the night finishing out and dawn breaking. Noon would peak and begin to descend before anything was seen. The cultists almost missed the heroes. They had predicted that they would be flying high when in truth they were low. The moonstone dragon flew overtop the rest with the alicorns and riders underwing. The marbled teals and turquoises on white served as camouflage when looking down from above while the heroes were flying over the waves.

The cultists gathered up and lept from the mansion in a dive down towards the troop. In unison, the heroes sped up their travel as if going from a canter to a full gallop. As the cultists cut the angle to try to cut the heroes off, the landscape below switched from water to trees as the coast had been breached. Skimming over the jungle canopy, Malbrix summons a plane of force immediately infront of the heroes causing a sudden and harsh collision that stole the momentum in an intanst and dropped them tumbling through the canopy below.

The cultists dove through the cannopy as well having to tear through half of the earthly descent to once more see the enemy below... the enemy that was no longer there. At least not as they new them. There were no longer the three humanoid champions on three alicorns with a dragon and the sphere. There were now four alicorns with four humanoids, each elven in a different color pallete. Malbrix falsely assumed at first that the orb had been true polymorphed. In actuality, the seasonal eladrin had always been mounted on the alicorns and the illusion that masked them had faltered on their descent.

Mrtyu made the strategic choice to descend upon the eladrin to eliminate the allies to the champions. This decision would be devastating. Malreus would join the death priest in this fateful mistake. Malbrix would provide arcane support from the lower canopy while Atman returned upward to attempt to see any other enemies. On a slim chance, the creation of death witnessed the barest abnormality in the cloud cover above as the true champions were passing stealthfully overhead with their distraction below.

While the Malreus and Mrtyu fought brilliantly in the first few moments, they quickly realized that this was a fight they could not attempt to win. They began to damage each eladrin but they had to pull back. As each fey creature either lashed out with blades or launched arrows, their mounts independently moved on the battlefield and began to stomp the lifeforce from the gloomstalkers. In a matter of seconds, both Mrtyu and Malreus witnessed they gloomstalkers being slaughtered. At the same time, Mrtyu fell the conflicting waves of emotions from each seasonal eladrin attempt to take over her mind. She had to get Malreus and herself out of their before any charms or fears took hold.

Abandoning the mounts, Mrtyu teleported the two straight up almost thrice the canopy height for Malreus to catch them with his wings. This wasn't the plan. They needed the mounts. But they couldn't risk everything to try to save them. They could manage with two.

Below, Malbrix quickly found the ire switch from the melee combatants to them. A fusilade of enchanted arrows tore through the beast. As the pair began to fall from the sky, Malbrix instead launched himself and the beast upwards by reversing gravity. The layers of canopy bashed and tore the rider from the mount but the pair would end up above bobbing in the air not far from each other.

Atman had just finished flying up to Malreus and Mrtyu to provide a seat for the cleric when the party began their group descent again. It was a race to Malbrix or rather their mount. Managing to skate by on thin ice, the mount was revived.

Fleeing the Eladrin and Alicorns below, the complete truth of the matter was realized. The eladrin would not be chasing. There had been initial questions on the fey being align with the heroes. It seemed that they had been contracted for a particular mission. To distract the cultists and use that moment to eliminate mounts. The fey were not willing to simply die for the cause. And if into completely accomplished, their mission was complete.

The Cultists would continue on a weary flight for another handful of hours. They had not slept in their unknown preparation for the ambush. They had to gain more ground. But they also had to rest. Atman had already created one mansion today. It would take the peak of their power but they would create another one for much needed rest. Hopefully, that rest would be enough because tomorrow would start the beginning of the end. A final sprint to get to Vistul's embrace. And now, with their delay and ambush, it would be in the light of day.

Fifth Pursuit: Dragging On and On

With the dawning of the next day came with what might be the last Commune of the chase. There were many possibilities discussed of what questions to ask. In they end, they decided to stick purely with logisitics questions:
1. Are we closer to Vistul's Embrace than they are? No
2. Are thy within a 20 mile radius of us? Yes
3. Are they altered their course to get to Vistul's Embrace? No
While they attempted to glean more information but for the first time, their primary commune would be there only. Against her own creed, Mrtyu prepared a single healing spell this day.

With that information in hand, the companions decided to charge onward as fast as possible. They did not want to make this an endurance race now that they were at a reduced rate of travel. The enemy was close. Any delay of a long race gave the divinely inspired a chance to out-endure them.

Atman used it's magic to enhance the strength of the Gloomstalkers. It might be magic intense, but the dead tools job was as a tool. By the end of the first hour, the troop could see the draconic shape in the distance as it flew over the winged mounts of the rest of the party. Atman would empower the gloomstalkers once more to keep this run-down going.

As the pursuers drew closer, their tactics would slightly change. If they could see the heroes, the heroes could see them. In the sky there was little to hide behind besides clouds. The climbed in altitude to at least cover their final approach. The plan was to dive out of the sky with paralyzing shrieks and snatching claws to steal the orb. Malbrix even enchanted both gloomstalkers with a Freedom of their movement to aid in the hit-and-run. However, as they began to make their final handful of minutes closing in for the attack, the clouds cleared below for a moment to see their quarry. Their target was off.

The dragon was no longer there. Well, the mithral banded orb was, but the dragon wasn't. The orb now was tether between two alicorns ridden by Malg and Vistul. More than the dragon, another champion was gone as well. Elgonga Atman tried to scan the area to pick up what was going on. Miraculously, Atman perceived something strange. It's bones rattle in conjunction with a high pitched whistle on the winds.... a whistle caused by something large dropping fast... (Atman spent resources to his a 35 with only a base +4 when he needed a 28. it took both a luck and the choice to use resources.)

The two gloomstalkers lurched into defensive flight manuevers as a beam of moonlight searing from the sky from the maw of a shimmering moonstone dragon. The invisibility shed from it's form. A few minor attacks were launched back to harry it but the troop attempted to speed onward to get to the slowed alicorns now carrying the massive container. A blast of moonlight that enveloped Malreus, Malbrix, and their mount showed that that was not an option. On pure luck alone did the gloomstalker survive the blast. A reality hit. If they lost a single gloomstalker and the dragon got away, this entire endeavor was lost. If they could kill the dragon, the mission could continue either way.

Mrtyu dimension doored onto the dragon followed by Malreus getting aboard by his own wings and martial prowess. Malbrix attempted to bring earthbind the dragon but as the tethers attached the dragon itself snapped the magic itself. Mrtyu began to channel all of her energy into her scyth to land massive blows while Malreus churned through with rapid strikes.

The dragon attempted to call upon its fey magic once again but Atman broke the incantation. Atman's major concern was visually tracking the other heroes in the distance. He noticed another illusion fade as the party had disguised it's remaining members. Elgonga was there... Malg was missing. In the chaos of the fight, the pair of riders would dropp into the forest for cover but Atman would maintain general knowledge of where they were last seen.

The dragon managed to swat Mrtyu off it's back with it's tail for her to empower herself with flight at after a moment of freefalling. It couldn't get Malreus off though. Knowing itself to be doomed, the dragon got over Malbrix and his mount again to rain light down upon them. Fate was on the cult's side as it was not enough to disintegrate the gloomstalker in the light. Mrtyu's healing magic would be used to revive the beast as Malreus rod the dragon downward eviscerating through it's body. The tiefling would disengage with the falling dragon to regroup with the troop.

Final Legs

Mrtyu and Atman immediately pushed the party to finish this chase. It was so close. The companions flew ahead to where the alicorns had dropped into the forest nearby. A divination to locate the sphere brought a positive reading. The cult would descend into the jungle as far away as possible undering the stealthy ward of Atman. They would hide the gloomstalkers away in safety before continuing on foot. The gloomstalkers were given instructions to save themselves at all costs.

The cultists stalked forward into find their divination lead them directly to the orb. Unfortunately, a mammoth was standing directly overtop it. As they planned their tactics and looked for danger, they heard their gloomstalkers shrieking behind them.

The gloomstalkers were assaulted by Vistul and Elgonga under the cover of their Alicorn's magic. If Vistul could not get to her temple, she chose to stand and fight in a lush jungle that fit the granted powers of the Hopebloomer. The first of the gloomstalkers was torn apart by Elgonga's champion and it's steed. The second was temporarily bound by strangling vines before squirming away with the help of Malbrix's enchantment. It flew upward breaking the canopy before winging towards the group. This would not save it though. Vistul's champion rose on alicorn wings, got the creature in sight, and then teleported in a flash of light right next to it. The champion's hand glowed with divine light and order smote the gloomstalker into radiant dust.

Below, the cultists became desperate. In a single twenty-four hour period gone from being faster than their quarry, to maybe slower but able to enhance their speed, to faster, to dreadfully, unavoidably slower. The two champions and their mounts would be back soon. The mammoth stood over sphere, they had to act now or all would be lost.

Malbrix stepped forward and on a wild chance, cast out a dispelling incantation on the chance that it would work. The Passage Keeper, wanting out, reached out for it's cultists and established a momentary connection. The divine prison might be broken in this moment, if they failed it would seal more permanently and need the ritual chamber and time to crack, but in this moment, there was a chance they might tear it open. As the energy surged between the prison and the cultists, all of the magical followers began to pump their energy into this attempted sundering... Magical potential of any sort was being pumped towards this endeavor in a gamble. The more they gave, they more likely it was to break... but also the less they had in reserve to survive the champions should this fail... or even succeed for that matter.

As all of the power came together.... fate laughed in the cult's face. An explosion of energy elicited out as the prison held the tightest it could. However earnest their attempt, this would not be the way the Passage Keeper would be freed. With the orb tampered with, it sealed itself from further assault. If there was any hope of unlocking it now, it would take a ritual space and an entire cult. (All of the spell slots and sorcery points given into the ritual, along with a bardic inspiration die, totaled a 72% chance of opening. They needed a 72 or lower. The percentile dice rolled a 100 now of all times.)

With their position announced... with the Passage Keeper locked tight... the cultist prepared for their last stand.


Malreus summoned his second self to begin ascending into the canopy to try to get some eyes on the situation. They needed to know whether they had seconds or minutes to prepare. As the echo ascended, Malbrix began to call upon every well of energy they had left. They conjured a crown of gears to be lashed out when the time came. Malbrix then centered themselves and invoked a second Trance of Order for the day as well as bolstered their Bastion of Law. Mrtyu began to ready their own series of improvements but would have to hold off on most wanting the enemy to be present to view the transformation. Atman... well.... Atman was mostly up as a battery on the high risk play and simply readied themselves to be a punching back.

The companions only got that far in their preparations, Malreus's Echo barely skimming to the lower canopy, when a flash of light popped near the Mammoth. The golden metallic surface of Elgonga's champion was seen upon their alicorn steed. With the shockwave, they had teleported immediately back to the orb uncertain what had caused it. They found the mammoth still over the sphere with the cultists to the north. The champion of Vistul was on her way but her steed had already utilized it's ability to teleport and would have to charge back. For now, it was just the them.

The champion and steed rushed in upon the cultists. Mrtyu revealed her true fallen aasimar form and conjured spiritual guardians to tear through the field. Immediate attention was given to Elgonga's champion as the main threat but the plan quickly shifted to having a bulk of the cult's attacks instead target the alicorn. The fear was that Elgonga would be able to escape upon it. The tactic also dealt with the problem of the reign of hooves that the alicorn could dish out in rapid succession.

As the alicorn was brought low, Malbrix sent a flury of arcane blasts at metallic giant which proved fruitless. The champion opened up it's chest to allow the gear to go straight through to hit Malreus while the arcane bolt was absorbed into the form. Mrtyu and Malreus carved deep into the champion as it returned with forceful slams and launched darts of it's own body. Malreus, warped around the champion changing spots with his echo to prevent any other friendly fire shots through the torso.

Before Elgonga's champion could be finished, Vistul's dropped through the canopy upon her steed. Conjuring her Mother's Wrath, the jungle life all around the cultists sprung to life in slamming branches and thorn lined vines. Mrtyu, Atman, and the unfortunately just-transpositioned-in Malreus were caught in the storm of plantlife. With Vistul's champion present, the Mammoth now received a new command to join the fray over protecting the orb.

Wanting to keep the fight divided, Malbrix conjured a shell-like sphere of force to capture Vistul's champion and separate her from her alicorn. The new alicron replaced the dispatched one as the cultists attempted to finish off Elgonga's champion. While Malreus and Mrtyu wrecked through it's semi liquid form, it fought to the last. On death's door, it even caught Mrtyu's spiritual weapon in mid air and used it as a weapon against the cult. Despite that, it could not withstand the rain of blows and eventually fell under the pressure.

The companion then turned their attention onto the alicorn and the mammoth to wittle down the forces before opening the force shell to face Vistul's champion. Despite that, she continued to fight on conjuring magics to attempt to influence the battle in small ways. When Mrtyu went underneath the floting shell to begin the assualt on her, Malbrix dropped the wall of force.... to drop Vistul down onto Mrtyu... Not their finest planning.

The final fight against Vistul's Champion was one of hit and run--- for Vistul. She called upon the Hopebloomer's wrath once more bringing Atman down before teleporting through a tree. Vistul pursued the distant Malbrix rather than fighting Malreus and Mrtyu together. Mrtyu never managed to catch up but would real the champion in with grasping eldritch blasts. A flurry of all the cultists was needed to finish the fight.

Epilogue

When the combat closed, there were immediate actions taken to bolster the party's situation (especially Atman) as they still did not know where the Champion of Malg was. Atman had no power to conjure another mansion. Deep in the jungle, they in unfamiliar territy with a hound archon of the god of conflict as a wildcard.

Slowly, the cultists found a place to hide and recuperate. They had the sphere, but no way to immediately open it. They had the 1,000 pound sphere, but no way to quickly transport it. It would be a long and arduous journey back to their cult lair, the entire time looking over their shoulders.

When they the finally did return, a garish sight awaited them. Upon a pike out front of their labyrinth was a teifling's head, Malreus' head, slowly decaying in the frozen land. Their Labyrinth had been solved. Their followers were eviscerated. Their lair itself orderly demolished. Early mistakes and the damning hand of fate had played their cards. In time the cult would come to fully understand what had happened.

When the cult had failed on it's first attempt to take the orb in the tundra, the slain Malreus had had his head taken. This is what had necessitated the ritual to bring him back. The cult had been able to use the head in divinations against the party (among other things, Malreus mathematically could never resist a Scry attempt on him). After the heroe's failed attack over the Everstorm Sea, Malg's champion had separated from the party. The cultists came so close to learning of this fact in their communions but always missed learning in on last moment adjustments to their questions.

Moreso, the thorough deconstruction of the lair was done at the hands of outsiders from Mechanus. Mechanus was the planar realm that gave Malbrix their power. Beyond all odds, when the champion of Thelbissy had broken their divinely empower staff of power, not only did she not die but she was transported directly to Mechanus. Once there, she worked against the cult with the realm to come back to the prime and oppose the cult.

The cult of the Passage Keeper had managed to retrieve the idol and prevent it's imprisonment within a temple of the old gods but it still remained beyond their grasp. For now, it was beyond their grasp. The champions of the old gods would certainly still be on the lookout for their works along with the eyes of Mechanus. The cult would need to go into hiding.

Mrtyu was hollow and beyond the reach of time. Atman was a construct of bones and souls. They would wait until a safer age to continue their work. Malbrix would return to the Astral Sea to find a means of stasis to await the time the cult was active again. Malreus would need to seek out a fiend among the lower planes to finish his ascension into fiendhood. Whatever the deal to be made, the immortality of attaining such a form would ensure the cult's continued power into the coming ages.

As our story ends, the cult of the Passage Keeper does not. They lie in the dark, awaiting a time that their actions fall from memory into myth, myth into mystery, and mystery into the lost unknown. Only once that happens will they be able to grow once again to gather the power they need to release their entrapped idol and take control of death itself.