The party decides to continue exploring the second level, opening a door to the south, revealing a throng of zombies huddled around an alabaster basin filled with bloody entrails. The zombies turn around and begin their attack. Setra moves over and flies a shot. Yuhia moves in and stabs at a Zombie, while another one stabs at Yuhia. Irabeth enters into the room, sliding over to the left. Reid lets loose a Glitterdust into the room, blinding some of the Zombies. One of the blinded Zombies attempts to smack at Yuhia while the other zombies begin to turn their attention on Irabeth. Setra then looses two arrows which cuts the tendons of the zombie, making him fall.
Yuhia lets loose another flurry of attacks, while Jorryn raises his hands up in the air to burst damage the zombies. A zombie moves up to attack Yuhia which has fallen back to the corner of the room, while another zombie attacks Jorryn. Irabeth lets loose a Channel Positive Energy, while Reid lets loose a flurry of missiles. Bosco moves up and releases a starknife at the zombie out front, ending its unlife. Setra then shoots the one in front of Jorryn while Setra's wolverine, Emily, evicerates it with its claws. Yuhia then moves up to help Irabeth. Jorryn charges, and stumbles, letting his spear land in the pit of intestines. Irabeth then slashes a Zombie away, and the Mongrelmen begin to move in, assisting Irabeth in her attacks. The last zombie attempts to attack Irabeth to no avail, and Setra moves in, letting an arrow loose, taking a tiny chunk out of the Zombie. Yuhia then moves up to the Zombie and ends its unlife, ending combat.
The party finds that the bowl that was surrounded by the Zombies before the party killed them was a bowl of viscera, filled with water. Reid and Bosco notice that the bowl is normally used in a scrying ritual. The party discusses what they want to do, and they decide to clean the large bowl, shoveling out all of the viscera, and using
prestidigitation to clean the bowl out. Jorryn and Bosco fills the bowl with fresh water. The water glows and shimmers. Looking into the water, the party sees a room, which looks to be two beefy zombies, a nasty looking person, and a caged artifact.
The half-humanoid, half-wasting creature is guarding the artifact. They seem to be studying this artifact in this spiky cage. The party notices the symbol is part of the original
Wardstone. Its radiating a golden energy, and the party thinks it will be upstairs. The party heals up a bit, and convenes on what to do, then deciding to ascend the stairs.
Approaching the top of the stairs, the party notices a large horned demon that is guarding a set of double doors. Yuhia moves up to attack it, and misses, with Reid following closely behind them. They find out the creature is called a half-fiend minotaur. Reid greases the horn to make it drop it to its wrist. Irabeth then goes up the stairs and ignites her blade aflame using her Paladin powers. The Minotaur then picks up the horn and blows it very loudly, and then draws its greataxe, ready to attack. Setra moves up the stairs and gets ready to attack. Jorryn heads up the stairs and readies his spear for the incoming battle. Reid then decides to cast a
Ray of Enfeeblement to lower its strength. Reid attempts to pull one of the
everburning torches out of the alcoves out of the wall, but fails.
Irabeth then comes in and gets smacked by the greataxe of the minotaur. On the minotaur's turn, it attempts to swing its large greataxe at Yuhia, but fails both times. Setra ducks into the alcove, and tries to hit the minotaur with arrows from her bow, but misses. Jorryn moves up and spears the demon, creating a small hole in the demon. It tries to swing on Bosco as he enters the room. Yuhia strikes at the demon, leaving small gashes in the demon. Reid tries to grease the demon's weapon, but fails, while Irabeth takes a step up and swings at the creature, missing wildly.
As the demon begins to raise its blade, the party sees a little bit of smoke coming out from underneath the door. The demon smites Yuhia attempting to land two strikes, but missing. Setra then takes aim and sticks two arrows into the demon. Bosco chucks a starknife at the demon, and Yuhia lands a solid blow, slicing his head in half, defeating the demon. Setra brings up using the mongrelmen as fodder, but Reid dismisses the ideas. Reid notices the helms that are in the alcoves are helmets of the first crusade. Reid wants to consider restoring the helmets, and they add them to their inventory to be restored later. The party inspects the horn and the greataxe, which is larger than everyone.
Finally, the party walks up to the door and tries to open it. Its locked, so Jorryn starts bashing down the door. After a little bit of time, it shatters open the door, and a mist exudes into the room. Once the door opens up, an effect enters the room which panics Setra, Reid, her companion, and all but one of the Mongrelmen get feared down the stairs. Irabeth places a hand on Setra's shoulder and alleviates her fear. Irabeth then moves in and gets striked by a zombie, and then another Zombie moves up and tries to hit Jorryn. Yuhia then smacks one of the zombies, while Emily shoots down the stairs, and Setra runs in and shoots over Irabeth's shoulder. Bosco begins to inspire, and Jorryn slides in, seeing a demon, and smacking it with his morningstar.
Finally, the spiky scythe creature tries to Bestow Curse on Jorryn, which it fails. Irabeth then smites the spiky evil creature, and then Irabeth moves over to shove a longsword into her gullet. One of the zombies attempts to smack on Horryn, while Yuhia shanks a zombie, splitting it in half. Setra then attempts to hit the zombie, but one of the arrows flies wide, and it hits the artifact, making it glow a little bit, but otherwise doing nothing. Bosco then saunters over and slices off the entire body of the zombie into chunks, making it fall to the ground. Jorryn then moves over and smacks the demon, ending its existence on this plane. Next, the spiky humanoid attempts to slice into Irabeth, but ultimately fails. Irabeth then slices through the armor of the spiky humanoid, and Yuhia moves around to attempt to shank it from behind. Setra then moves to the side and sends two arrows down towards the spiky creature, but only one actually hits. Bosco then moves up and shoves their starknife into the side of its gut, while Jorryn tries, and fails, to smack the spiky humanoid across the head.
The spiky humanoid then shoves its scythe into Bosco's side, causing some damage, while Irabeth tries to hit the humanoid while trying to heal herself. The mongelman that made its fear save runs in and attempts to shoot the humanoid, but it fails. Yuhia then repositions to attempt to flank with Irabeth, but it fails. Setra moves away, and the spiky humanoid sweeps the leg of Setra, causing some damage. Put off by this, Setra attempts to shoot one arrow into the humanoid, while Jorryn swings and misses with his morningstar. The spiky humanoid then reaches down and touches Bosco, draining one level from Bosco, and healing her up. Irabeth swings and misses at the humanoid, while Yuhia also swings and misses, and Setra continuing to keep the trend, and misses once, but hits the second shot for some damage. The next round, Bosco shanks the creature in the leg, while Jorryn hits the creature down with his morningstar, and Irabeth ultimately ends the life of the spiky humanoid.
Taking stock of the situation, the party then loots the corpse of the spiky humanoid, and takes stock of the shard in the cage.
Chapter 18 - The Destruction of the Kenebres Wardstone Fragment
Reid suggests to clear the room while he uses the
Rod of Cancellation on the
Wardstone Fragment. However, everyone decides to stay, except for the mongrelmen, which stays downstairs, and Bosco which moves out of the room. Reid then sticks the Rod of Cancellation into the cage and touches the Wardstone. It glows for a second, and ultimately rejects the Rod of Cancellation. Reid then attempts to touch the Wardstone a few times, each time the Rod keeps getting rejected, with Reid getting frustrated every time. Finally, he is able to make contact with the Artifact, and it glows with a bright glow. It fills the room with a bright white light, and it fills the room with shrapnel, which, miraculously, none of the shrapnel pieces hit the PCs. Finally, the location where the Wardstone was glows with an orb of bright light, and it pulses out of the room, grabbing Bosco and pulling him into the room.
The orb then blasts the roof off of the building, it extends a bright white light miles into the air. From the distance, a couple dozen lights miles in the distance extend up into the air, piercing their the veil of cloud cover of darkness around the
Worldwound. The lights then have their lights bend towards the PC's location, hitting the fragment location. The Wardstone Orb then exudes energy, and pierces the PCs, lifting them off of the ground, and empowering them.
As the players are stunned, they receive a vision, which separates their soul from their bodies, and sends their vision high above the clouds, seeing the area of Golarion. A pulse of golden light emanates from the center of the Wardstones, and they receive flashes of visions from the various Wardstones, seeing each of the Wardstones pierce with golden light, and pulse out, hitting demons, vaporizing some demons, while severely damaging most others. The remaining demons then limp back towards the inner of the Worldwound, and the vision shows the Wardstones begin to die out with a soft white light, then go to dim, and then, fall into darkness, becoming dormant.
Then, the PC's view shifts further up, seeing Golarion as a whole, seeing the entire planet moving backwards slowly, rotating around the star rapidly almost 75 times. The incorporeal bodies of the PCs lands on the planet, and they look around, seeing that it looks like they are in the past. Their bodies are pulled through a wall, and they are standing at the half-built room of the Kite, where the wardstone was first erected. A couple dozen humans hold onto ropes as the large obelisk is pulled upwards. Various races of wizards and clerics stand in a circle around the obelisk, chanting, as a golden, winged angel with a halo of small swords descends from the heavens, spreading out his hands, infusing the obelisk with a golden light. They recognize this creature as the Hand of the Inheritor, the Herald of Iomedae. The party realizes this time is
4639 AR, just after the second crusade begins . As the obelisk is activated, their bodies are pulled away from Golarion.
Looking down at Golarion, it starts rotating forward rapidly, rotating around the sun two dozen times before the PC's incorporeal bodies are pulled back towards the planet into Kenabres, in the courtyard of the kite. Looking around, the party sees a 20-year-old
Hulrun ordering dozens of supposed "witches" to be burned at the stake. The party realizes this is
4665 AR, just before the Third Mendevian Crusade . The burned people cry into the darkness, and, as smoke fills the air, the party's bodies are once again pulled back away from Golarion.
Golarion again rotates around the star, and the PC's bodies land in the courtyard of the Kite. The party looks up into the sky, and the
Khorramzadeh, the Storm King bashes into the side of the Kite, sending shards of metal, concrete, and stone everywhere. The party realizes this is
4707, when Khorramzadeh chips the Kenebres Wardstone . The party's body is pulled into the Kite, where they see Khorramzadeh swing his sword at the Wardstone. His sword is shattered, and the wardstone suffers the tiniest of cracks as another figure swoops in, the silver dragon
Terendelev. She lands on Khorramzadeh and slashes at him with her claws, with Khorramzadeh turning around to fight the dragon. After a few minutes, Terendelev lands a resounding blow against Khorramzadeh and it forces the balor to retreat into the darkness. The party then teleports to overlooking the courtyard, and the party sees the troops assembling, marking the beginning of the
4692 to Fourth Mendevian Crusade . The party's bodies are then pulled away from Golarion.
Golarion rotates around the sun a dozen times, and, once again, the party's bodies are pulled into the Kite where they see two paladins,
Irabeth Tirabade and
Staunton Vhane, a large burly halfling towards the center of the Wardstone chamber where Irabeth yells after Staunton "YOU WILL SUFFER FOR THIS INJUSTICE!" Both paladins are covered in battle wounds, and Irabeth backs Staunton against the wardstone. Staunton's hand presses back against the wardstone, where it smokes, and Staunton yells out in pain. Irabeth overcommits when she goes to swing at Staunton, and he ducks out of the way, with Staunton taking a resounding blow at Irabeth's knee, sending her to the ground. Staunton catchs his breath, and goes to raise his hammer over his head to kill Irabeth, but the approaching Paladin guards makes him change his tactics: he turns and summons a fiendish giant wasp, mounts it, and flies out of one of the light shafts around the wardstone chamber. Irabeth smacks her fist into the ground while the paladins file into the chamber, helping Irabeth to her feet. As Irabeth is helped away from the chamber, the party is once again pulled away from Golarion to go forward in time once more.
Time moves forward, and the party sees that Kenabres is now destroyed, as if the Wardstone had only exploded a few days prior. They stand inside Defender's Heart, in the very room they are stunned in, and they see a beautiful demonic woman, with a long thin tail, clawed hands, and curling horns protruding from where here eyes should be. Nearby, the party sees a deformed creature, Jeslyn, the creature the party just defeated. Standing behind Jeslyn, it looks like the horned woman is infusing Jeslyn with the power to lift and move the fragment into place, and construct a cage around the fragment. After the construction of the cage, the woman casts
greater teleport and disappears, leaving Jeslyn behind to defend the fragment.
As the party stands there, they see Jeslyn move faster and faster, as if they are moving forward through time, a short week. As time slows back down to normal, the door swings open to reveal someone the party all recognizes immediately:
Areelu Vorlesh, the architect of the
Worldwound. The half-succubus is carrying a purple crystal, and the party can just feel its overwhelming evil power. Areelu walks over to the fragment with the purple crystal and touches it to the
Wardstone Fragment, which turns the gold glow slowly to a dark, smoky purple light, which exudes into the atmosphere. The party's bodies rise above the city, and the purple light extends into the atmosphere, and then bends towards the other wardstones on the border, turning their light into an evil purple, and it pulses with a dark light. The party's bodies are pulled to one of the cities, and the party sees the crusaders, civilians, and others being infused with demonic energy, changing them into demonic beings, turning on their fellow allies, and ripping them apart.
With that final vision, the party's souls are pulled back into their present bodies, the fragment's glow still glowing with a dimming yellow light. The party struggles to get to their feet, and they feel a strong demonic presence in the room: Arrelu Vorlesh in an incorporeal form appears before the party: a beautiful demonic woman with batlike wings, a horned brow, and glowing red eyes. The woman speaks to everyone in the room:
"This only delays your kind's extinction. But, at least I can take steps to hasten your own." She raises her hand in an attempt to cast a spell.
Irabeth raises her blade and exclaims, "Demon Areelu, you will answer for your crimes!" She charges at the incorporeal Areelu, but she raises her hand, and Irabeth stops dead in her tracks, grasping at her throat, her cheeks turning blue, and Irabeth buckles over in pain. Areelu looks at the party and looks frustrated.
"The death throes of your
wardstone seem to be protecting you from my magic. No matter. They cannot protect you from my slaves!" With her arms spread wide, a rift tears open in reality in front of her. Eight babau demons stumble out of the portal. Behind the Babaus, the party sees glimpses of even more demons looking to enter this world: vrocks, glabrezus, and even a marilith. When all hope seems lost, the light that is concentrated on the party pulses outward, intersecting with Areelu's connection. She shrieks in pain as the golden light shatters all of her bones. She doubles over and the image of Areelu vanishes, as well as the portal, leaving only the party, Irabeth, and eight Babaus in the room. Irabeth collapses to the ground, unconcious. The party takes to their feet, and the Babaus begin their attack.
The party is currently under the temporary effect of the Wardstone Death Throes, which has the following effects: DR 10/good; Regeneration 5 (unholy damage or evil spells Resist fire 10, acid 10; continual daylight dispersion: all party members glow with a 60-ft daylight spell that automatically dispels any 3rd level or lower darkness effects; all attacks are treated as good for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction; all attacks deal +2d6 against creatures of the evil subtype; once per round, an affected creature can add 1d12 to any d20 roll they just made (before the result is revealed).
The party raises their weapons to attack the babaus. Yuhia stabs one of the babaus, and one of the babaus moves to the back corner to try to summon extra reinforcements, but fails. Reid moves out of the room and pushes
magic missiles into one of the Babaus. Another three babaus attempts to summon a demon, but they all fail, while Jorryn swings at one of the Babaus. Setra moves away from the demons, and casts
gravity bow. Two more babaus attempt to summon and they also fail. Bosco moves over and stabs a demon with his Starknife. A babau casts
dispel magic and nothing happens, while Yuhia attempts to shank another demon, hitting it but getting acid damage. Another babau attempts to
dispel magic while Reid uses a bolt at one of the Babau, but fails. Another babau moves out and tries to cast darkness on the room, but it is dispelled by the protective field that the party is exuding.
Finally, a babau decides to attack Setra, and hits her with its claws. Jorryn moves to a corner and stabs a babau, but terribly misses. Another babau attempts to cast darkness on the room, but it fails. Setra stands in front of a babau and shoots at the babau while he swipes at Setra and barely causes any damage. The babau reels back and takes a lot of damage. A babau slices through Bosco from flank, and another one flanks Yuhia, but overcompensates for its other attacks and hits itself. Bosco shoves their starknife into a Babau and moves into the corner. Another Babau shanks Yuhia from behind, while Yuhia moves into the top of the room, and hits the Babau back for a significant amount of damage, killing it out of existence. Another Babau moves up and tries to swipe at Yuhia, causing barely any damage. Reid then pushes Glitterdust into the room, blinding two of the Babaus. One of the unblinded Babaus flanks Setra and causes significant damage, and then Jorryn responds with a massive Morningstar attack. Another Babau flips into flank with Yuhia, and stabs Yuhia from behind.
Setra then moves away from flank, and attacks the Babau point blank. They attack back with very little damage caused to Setra, but she causes significant damage to the Babau. One of the Babaus that has Bosco cornered tries to hit Bosco, with little effect. Yuhia then causes damage damage against the Babau, but it responds with a lot of damage against Yuhia with sneak attack. Reid then tries to empty some Magic missiles into a demon, but it deflects off of spell resistance. Another Babau joins crowding Bosco, but misses. Jorryn then slices a significant damage, and the Babau brings down Yuhia, relying on regeneration to bring her back up. Setra then hits another Babau point-blank, causing enough damage to send it away from this realm. Another Babau moves away from Bosco, frustrated from the lack of damage, and attacks on Setra. Bosco then pushes more damage into a Babau, while another Babau moves up to Setra, flanking it and causing significant damage. Reid then moves up and greases a Babau into prone. That Babau crawls away and teleports to behind Reid. The other Babau moves through the
grease and trips, standing up in front of Bosco. Jorryn then shanks the Babau, causing additional damage. Setra moves out of flank, and shoots a Babau, while a damaged Babau teleports out of the room. Bosco pokes the remaining Babau in front of him, and Reid attempts to
vanish but finds out that these Babau have constant
see invisibility which it swipes at Reid as he moves away, following him and swiping at Reid. The one in front of Bosco swipes a few times at Bosco fruitlessly, while Jorryn moves into flank to attempt to take out the Babau, causing a little bit of damage. Setra then pushes two arrows into one of the Babaus and causes some damage.
The one that was blinded teleports away, while the one more damaged also moves away and teleports away. The one in front of Reid hits Reid as he moves, and casts
glitterdust on the demon, which he teleports away. Finally, when another Babau attempts to move away, Jorryn and Bosco shanks the final Babau, ending its existence on this plane.
After the battle, the party finds 10 small Wardstone
Finally, the party decides what they are going to do with the helmets, where they are going to repair them. The party then regroups with the crusaders which have been moving in since the blast. It turns out that the blast created by the Wardstone fragment's destruction had destroyed much of the lower level demons, and severely damaged most of the higher level ones. The surviving demons teleported away to safety, and the remainder were easily mopped up by the crusaders.
The party meets up again back at
Defender's Heart and discusses what happened, and giving all of the intelligence. That night, a beautiful woman in plate armor visits the party in a dream, which she thanks you and kisses you each on the brow. When you wake up, you feel a little more powerful. Yuhia figures out that the woman was Iomedae. Iomedae offers to convert Yuhia to Paladin, and her alignment switches to Lawful Good.
Comments