==== Summary 275: The Chase to the Gates (2021-02-13) ==== [[Giraine]] [[summaries-2021|Summaries]] ---- Good morning, Hopefully I get the order of details roughly right; so much happened, with many downs and ups! Ahappi faces the Talanim and feels a surge of power from an inner roar: “Effluvia of the Night Dragon shall breathe its rage and wound the sky!” and shadows writhe forth from his scales to protect him, and cling to his weapons to grant them the power of darkness and cold. Shrett, on the other hand, squints at the bright light emitted by the cloud bearing the Sky-forces; whereas Bog is fanatically inspired to shed their blood. Ahappi returns the Talanim’s challenge, bellowing that as Effluvia of the Night Dragon, he will overcome it. The Talanim flaps quickly down from the cloud to engage Ahappi. The Polaris soldiers remain behind, loading their fire-bows. Shrett returns fire with his, while the others rush the soldiers, able to climb the slope of the golden cloud. Soon they are engaged, forcing the soldiers to drop their bows and draw swords that burst into flame. Back at the duel with Ahappi, it starts poorly. The Talanim deals Ahappi grievous wounds to the tail, then the right leg, cleaving off much of his precious armour there. Ahappi falls down before it, then has his trident knocked from his hands with another sword-stroke. The Talanim pronounces his doom is at hand. But he does not relent. He draws the Stinging Spear and disarms the Talanim of its flaming greatsword! And this is a key moment that turns the battle’s tide, as the Talanim is now almost defenceless against Ahappi without its sword. Ahappi buys himself a little time with a Darkness spell that the Talanim casually cancels with a lingering aura of intense light. It still deals nasty blows with its hooves, first trampling and then kicking at him as he rises to his feet again. Meanwhile, Shrett drops his bow and hurries to engage his target, as the others gradually defeat theirs, knocking them prone or otherwise crippling them. Fraud is the first to win, beheading his enemy cleanly in one stroke. He sees wounded Ahappi fighting for his life and decides that this is no time for honor, so he runs back down the cloud and ambushes the Talanim, which Ahappi had just blinded by hurling shadow-stuff into its many eyes. He cuts deeply into one of its golden feathered wings and severs that! The Talanim roars in anguish and outrage at this perfidy, and this buys Ahappi time. He has already struck the Rokari Sky-Angel twice in the forequarters, once using Mikligarmyr’s lightning power to blast the wound more deeply, and now he deals a deadly blow there again, impaling it, and soon ripping its heart out. It dies. Fraud looks back to the battle, seeing that Shrett has just arrived to help after downing his foe, and the others soon dispatch theirs. It has been a brutal fight for Ahappi, though. He barely survives. Yet the Night Dragon knows his victory, and roars again within: “Effluvia of the Night Dragon shows triumphant breath and lives to breathe again! Feel the breath of Hell within.” [Ooh, nice!! Ahappi gains 1-use Breath of the Night Dragon, 1 action, roll Endurance to invoke vs. Endurance of 1 target, 3d6 cold damage no armour all locations if overcome (1/2 damage and armour counts if resist); can augment automatically with Helldragon passion] Shrett, seeing how injured Ahappi is, calls on his Seshna Tibbolkorrin blessing to Rejuvenate Ahappi and those wounds all recover, and he spreads this blessing around others in your greater band, as the full battle ends. You take some flaming weapons from the fallen; Fraud chooses the Talanim’s greatsword as a trophy and Shrett a fire-sword; and many of you cut long gold flight-feathers from its wings. Ahappi cuts off its lion head to add to his collection. This is a costly battle and you hope that you do not face another like it. The band rejoins and travels onwards, to the west. [There is a map of your journey in the Dropbox now] Word spreads that, below the sky dome, Yelm has descended and Xentha has spread her cloak over the Middle World, but here it is eternal daytime under Dayzatar’s uppermost light and from that of the many stars. Soon dawn comes, and now it is Waterday of Movement Week in Sea Season; an auspicious day indeed. You must have passed a second day coming to the Sky and leaving Caelaca without noticing. The heat and hours of westward journey through the fields continue to oppress you, as distant hosts of armies pursue your and other bands, but none of you feel the fatigue that weaker questers do. You see a globe of light in the distance, gliding over the golden fields. This soon takes shape as a cluster of people suspended in a moving arc of white light. But they look different from the Sky Folk. Much more familiar. Scorching with pale magic, their forms crackling and raining down sparks from above, some of them held aloft by the great arc of light and others riding golden lions down that arc, they have all the signs of Rokari heroquesters from Seshnela—a mixed team of Zzaburi and Talari, and they hurtle down at you. One iron-armoured Talari cries out, “You meddle in forces outside your understanding! A return of the Boat Planet would be a grave Error unleashing cosmic imbalance and Chaos! Turn back or face the might of the one church and one king of the West!” It's another battle, and indeed another costly one, as it turns out. Shrett targets one of the robed Zzaburi who remain in the light-arc casting spells; Bog hurls a frost-flail at another and heroically knocks him out! The three Talari choosing you as targets direct their lions to engage Boamund, Ahappi and Fraud, and the melee is vicious. Boamund has a long stalemate with his mounted foe, well-matched in skills and whose lion keeps him busy too. Ahappi is desperately outnumbered and takes a severe head wound from a spear, that would have killed anyone but a hero. A lion grabs his leg and begins gnawing deeply into his flesh; soon he falls down and is in trouble. Fraud disarms his enemy and, aided by Bog, has him and the lion cut down, but this takes precious time. Shrett peppers the last Zzaburi with arrows, first ruining a great spell of Melt Iron that would have caused awful losses in your group, then badly injuring him in multiple locations with a Multimissile; despite the Zzaburi’s best attempts to keep throwing Protection spells on himself. [John forgets that he had cast Enhance Iron Armour on the Talari to give them all 13 pt armour but oh well!] Soon Shrett rushes the prone Zzaburi, drawing sword as the Zzaburi rises again, having used a Deny Wound spell to remove an impaled arrow in his abdomen. The Zzaburi does his best to defend himself with his staff, starting to cast a new spell focused on Shrett, but then Shrett cuts into his wounded arm and he drops again, screaming and bleeding; defeated. Bog and Fraud come to help Ahappi and Boamund respectively; soon all Talari have been disarmed [this is good as their longspears were 13 pt Damage Enhanced; always doing 11 pts max damage plus the 2d6 damage bonus!] and drawn swords instead, but their Enhanced Strength still makes them terrible foes with mundane weapons (even a shield bash is a threat), and the lions keep biting and clawing away at you. Ahappi barely survives having his leg ripped off and then the lion is knocked down and dazed by Bog, saving his life. The Talari nimbly leaps clear to face them. The lion on Boamund is also struck down from behind with a forequarters injury by Fraud, and that Talari too has to jump off. At last, that Talari is given repeated wounds to the chest and mortally wounded. Ahappi’s foe, fully disarmed except for his kite shield, is swiftly defeated. Yet the cost was great, with much magic used to achieve victory. Your band reassembles itself to depart westwards after Shrett grabs an iron broadsword. There is iron armour of the Talari aplenty and it is a shame to have to leave it behind but everyone has to hurry. Floating lights far ahead become closer, reveaing the long shimmering stretch of the Sky River and the shining walls of the Great Port of Princess Starry Eyes. But the fields ahead, lining a shining tributary of the Sky River whose waters glitter as if made of a million stars, blaze with golden flame emitting from their sprouting grains. The band slows, the realization dawning that the way forward is blocked by the huge conflagration, and debate ensues how to deal with it. Some Uz and Arkati put parts of the fire out with cold and Darkness magic, but the fires are many and some spring back to life after quenched. Some questers rush forward and suffer harsh burns, or die horribly. There is no time to linger, as distant armies close in. You act quickly. Fraud uses his Fly spell to summon air to carry you and some others aloft over the flames very easily, and Shrett, feeling generous, does the same with other questers, earning promises of future help [he can now call on Arkati heroquesters once on this quest for some help if they are around, and if it’s within their power to help]. The lights have coalesced into the fluid form of Lorion and on its shore the great city that all hero bands now converge upon from the east, some fighting desperate battles with horsemen or flying Certami angels as they do; for the armies of Polaris now converge too, and they outnumber the survivors. A group of cavalry lancers twice your band’s dwindled numbers has targeted you from the rear, so the band picks up pace to close the final distance to the Great Gates. Cries go up to fight or distract the foes or run for it. The band begins fragmenting as every individual strives to make it to the gates alive. Ahappi, wanting to emulate the leadership of Waertag the Reaver, yells out that your band should form up and fight a retreat to the gates. Will they listen, or has the band’s cohesion been broken by the lengthy chase and the sight of your goal? We’ll find out next time! Friday’s meet: https://meet.google.com/gqm-uwzc-bkp -John ----