The Final Spires, Part 6

Log Info

• Title: The Final Spires, Part 6

• GM: Whirlpool

• Characters: Aelwyn, Carver, Eztli, NAME UNKNOWN (Fidget),

• Place: The Felwood

• Summary: -The confederation of Alexandria and the Mythwood are making a push to activate the final Spires of Linneia before moving onto the center spire. Expect demons and fel monster of all sorts.

It's a moment.

In the distance, a temple of Eluna stands at last revealed, a silvery light gleaming in the forest. No doubt it's exposure has also rankeled those who do not care much for the divine.

... there's a somewhat ominous rumble, after all.

Carver is staring off at the temple, this monument of their labors, without much give in her expression. There is surprise to be sure, at all this supposed theories proven true, and it itself is a edifice of beauty, but it is not of her god nor is she learned enough to understand just how marvelous this all is

If she survives the Rumbling, maybe the wizards will explain to her later. She slings her bow to her hands, very quickly restringing her weapon in preparation for what is likely to come.

Eztli, having not had an input in activating the device, The small makari was off near the stairs. "That didn't feel right, did it?" She offers, sounding concerned, and not able to get a good look at what happened for the time being. "We probably shouldn't linger up here."

"So... towards the glowing weak point?" A goblin suggests, pointing towards the beam of light, "Not exactly sure what comes after that, though." She adds, and glances over to the wizards with them. "What *is* the plan, anyways? I'm assuming you have a plan. You seem like the sort."

Aelwyn arrives, singing as he steps into the high grasses. Bluebirds sing.

Aelwyn has arrived.

Aelwyn looks, but then with his slow, rolling gait he walks over to Carver to adore the magnificent-iness of the Elune's temple. A moment later, he drops his hand on Carver's shoulder. "It seems even the gods themselves agree we should burn this place down." He nods with a savage grin.

The Dragoon turns towards the Wizards. "This one assumes the plan was to bring down all that fire to deep clean the ins and outs of those halls, yes?"

The wizards are silent for a long moment.

All of them.

Tears form in the eyes of the elven one.

"Gods, it's true, then. It worked. We need to get there -- now -- secure the entrance. I thought we'd have to do more to reveal the temple -- or give it some more time. That was our best guess... but no. Immediate. We need to get there."

And heedless, he starts pushing forward in the direction of the revealed templke.

"I'm not really into readin' signs," Carver says, "Migh' be you are..." She startled at the clap on the shoulder, her thoughts clearly elsewhere but brought back into the moment at the physical contact. She turns back to the scholars, and doesn't even mock the one who is overcome by emotion at the sight of this returned holy place. Instead, she nods. "Guess we shoul' do what they say and keep them alive in the meantime."

"My favourite god likes pretty things. I figure fire is pretty, so they're always cool with me setting things on fire." The goblin off-handedly theologizes, following the others deeper still into the forest. "Any idea what we're going to find when we finally get there?" she asks the others.

"I don't think we should burn that down, Aelwyn." Eztli grumbles, sounding more serious than usual. "This is like, the one thing in this entire forest we shouldn't burn down."

"But uh, yeah. I'm a little worried about those guys. We really shouldn't let them wander off in a stupor like this, they're not in a state to react to what's happening." The makari grumbles, taking a bit more of a quick step after them.

Aelwyn _stares_ at the wizards. He saves some _staring_ at Eztli as well, whom he considered his comrade in setting things in Felwood on fire, but one staring at a time. "This one does not believe we should venture into the unknown with very little scouting." He tells the wizards. "And, this one is not certain if he was paid to do that."

The Dragoon then swings his glaive over his shoulder. "Either way, this one feels that there must be a trap somewhere." He grumbles, before following in after the wizards.

GAME: Nameless rolls survival: (9)+0: 9

GAME: Eztli rolls survival: (18)+1: 19

GAME: Aelwyn rolls survival: (4)+1: 5

GAME: Carver rolls survival: (11)+12: 23

By now, all of you are used to the oddness of the Felwood. It's not a terribly big surprise that Carver can lead the way with the sort of expert skill that allows her to channel the eager wizards, servants of ELuna and Animus that they are.

The air here feels ... tense. Anticipatory. Like the forest itself is waiting to see what happens next, and indeed, you find yourselves quickly closing in on the silvery-hued building you saw in the distance. You emerge into a clearing made by trees that were felled when it mades its appesarance, coming face to face with a gleamingly white marble exterior etched with silver runes and crescent moons. A pair of golden doors mark its entrance, and it's spire reaches high ijnto the sky, gleaming with reflected moonlight.

It's ... beautiful. An untouched wonder of the post Sundering world.

Carver stands in front of the glorious white, hands on hips as she gazes upon the full moon's erection. She snorts at the thought. Right, no. She shakes her head and dismisses the nervous giggle that bubbled up to her lips. "It's beautiful... an' strange, like reflection of the moon off the lake's waters. Surronded by the Felwood, a bit sad, innit?"

"So, now that it's 'ere an' all, what now? We secure the entrance so no one can go in until maybe priests have a look't?"

Eztli wasn't sure what to make seeing the building that was there. The small makari spends just some time staring at it, wiping at her eyes a few times. "It is sad, it's from before this place was like... this. I used to know a lot of people that would have done anything to see this. Feels a bit bad when I wasn't giving a crap about my studies to be here instead." Eztli sighs. "I think we need to make sure it's safe. I don't know if we should go in or not."

"We're not going to deal with it now?" The colourful gobbo complains, "But it's probably got lots of interesting stuff in it. Old magic, ancient lore, probably some ingeniously deadly traps. Would be a shame to let the priests who come later have all the fun." The goblin ponders for a moment as they travel, "We can leave them the traps. That seems fair."

With that, she checks to see if there's anything obviously dangerous and magical around the entrance, casting a detection spell.

GAME: Nameless casts Detect Magic. Caster Level: 8 DC: 17

GAME: Nameless rolls spellcraft+4: (17)+20+4: 41

Aelwyn wasn't necessarily as moved as the others in his party, but he could appreciate a good silvery fire and showing. He lowers his glaive and leans against it, tilting his hips. "This one has a feeling whatever is within, shall be brought out for us to handle by the too eager spellcasters. Then the draconian looks towards Eztli. "One should not feel bad for the whims of fate - for only today one's resolve matters."

And the ruddy sith-makar's resolve was to burn down everything. But that is hopefully for later.

GAME: Eztli rolls spellcraft: (13)+12: 25

There is an awkward pause after Nameless speaks, and then Carver pipes in, "Why the hell can't I 'member your name?"

Yes, this is a pivotal moment but it's REALLY bugging her.

"Ah, yeah. The short answer is Fae bullshit." The goblin without a name says, "The long answer is some asshole Fae got annoyed at me, and did that trick where they steal your name, and I tried to fix it, or figure out how to murder him until he stopped being such an asshole, but it went terribly wrong, and some people nearly died - actually one person did die, but they got better - but now I'm not me, but I'm not anyone else and I still really want to kill that Fae but a God told me it wouldn't really help. Also, the temple is charging up, by the way, in case that's a concern."

"Right, yeah, right. I should try to figure out what's going on here. Just because there are folks who read books to learn doesn't mean I can't well, try to understand this better." Eztli sighs, half heartedly snapping her fingers, causing the makari sorceress' eyes to glow for a brief moment, before she focuses back on the building. As much as one can focus when someone is telling a story like that. "That's, shit, that's pretty bad. So, well, wait, no, that's important but not like, NOT IMPORTANT RIGHT THIS MOMENT." She pipes up, almost shouting. "We need to get in there right now, and shut this down right this instant." She implores the others, already heading right up to the door. "You know how old this thing is? There wasn't a felwood before, and mana was super rare, hence why they needed this place. So what happens now that it's surrounded by corrupted mana to absorb instead? Mana that is doing its very best to try to kill everyone here? If it all coalesces in one dedicated space, that could be very, very bad, in my non expert opinion."

Aelwyn turns to look towards the nameless goblin with them. His orange slit pupils narrow and widen and then he clicks his tongue irately. "... this one knew the name, too." But, the ruminations on the fae-business and the temple casually charging up is taken to a short end when Eztli suddenly shouts out. The draconian lets out an annoyed snarl. "Tch, then no time left then." He picks up his glaive and heads straight towards the doors to barge in.

GAME: Eztli casts Detect Magic. Caster Level: 12 DC: 16

GAME: Aelwyn rolls strength: (15)+2: 17

The ruddy sith-makar walks up to the door. Stares at it, _glares_ at it - and then with all his fury and might... he pushes. And pushes. Though it looks like the weakened sith-makar is just holding his hands against the golden doors in contemplative meditation, and not doing his best to open up the big doors. "... this one thinks the doors are stuck." He says after a moment.

"Pfft." Carver interjects at Aelwyn after he turns back to the group. She rolls up her sleeves, sets her feet, grits her teeth and.....

GAME: Carver rolls str: (14)+str: 14

GAME: Carver rolls strength: (10)+2: 12

Nothing.

"Yep." Carver agrees, scratching at her head.

GAME: Nameless rolls strength: (12)+0: 12

GAME: Eztli refreshes spells.

GAME: Eztli casts Form of the Dragon I. Caster Level: 12 DC: 22

After a slight pause, the smalle gobbo tries adding her weight to the push, and it doesn't help much. There's a reason she doesn't really do strong person things, and instead does wizard things.

GAME: Eztli rolls strength: (10)+-1: 9

"We really don't have time to be messing around with this door. I know it's important and all, but so is Alexandria not being destroyed by demonic taint, I'm sure my ancestors will forgive me if I destroy a door." Eztli grumbles loudly while the others are trying to open the door. "Grant me your strength of the dragons who grant this power!" <draconic> the sorceress hisses, causing the makari to burst into flames. Flames that burned fiercely for some time, shifting shape into something larger. When they finally died down, in place of the makari was a large brown scaled dragon, which roared in challenge, shoving shoulder first into the door with the others, digging in hard into the ground.

Unfortunately, said dragon was still weakened from their run in with the shadows earlier, and incapable of moving the portal. "Surely we can get this open in a moment." Eztli growls. "And what are those wizards doing?"

The wizards are all standing there, staring up at the building. Some of them are rather awestruck. Others? Doing much the same as you did earlier: studying it with magic. Detection spells. Making notes. Following equations.

"...no immediate danger," says one of them, the elf, nodding his head at the Resurrectionist.

"We don't need to bash down the door, we just need to secure the gateway out front here. I'm sending a magical message back to the basecamp. They're sending people here to help us secure it. This is about to become the front line. The grounds need to be consecrated, the gates opened, and the temple itself secured. We can't let the demons taint it. The energy that the temple is harvesting - we can use it to weaken the Felwood. Permanently."

Aelwyn was validated when Carver walks up to the door and fails. And then the goblin. Then the drago- The ruddy sith-makar spins around, stares. Then stares upward. "... You are a dragon." That, seemed to be more awe bringing to him than the temple of Eluna bathed in silver light, like the ticking bomb it apparently was.

Snapping out of his reverie by the wizard's words, the Dragoon then clicks his teeth and starts walking closer. "Did one not hear the part where the dragon said this place shall explode?" He asks. "This feels there is plenty of immediate danger."

"It's not in *imminent* danger of explosion," says one of the wizards, staring at Eztli's dragon form with wide eyes.

"Tell them to send a cleric with restoration magic if they want us to stay out here for much longer, too." The goblin adds, "We've got some magical weakness we need to undo to get back to full fighting strength." Then she thinks on the rest of the plan, "Okay, so are we expecting to be running defense here while you do that? And are we talking hours or days?"

"

"It's not an imminent danger of explosion, no." Eztli grumbles, which sounds like a much more menacing growl when one looked like a dragon. "Did I say that? I said that this place is absorbing mana it was never made to, so if setting up for something we have no idea of the ramifications of is a lot more concerning."

Giving up for the time being though, the sorceress crumples to the ground to catch her breath. "I'm saying that we're waiting for this place to be filled with corrupted mana with no expectation of what that means. Surely whoever had this place made had the foresight to have a way to stop the flow temporarily, right?"

Aelwyn looks over towards Eztli. The dragon. And points towards the goblin whose name he can never remember. "This one would feel more comfortable blowing up the temple." Already pre-emptively rolling his head, he then nods his head towards the goblin. "We do need someone to restore us, if we are to stay here and guard."

Then he gestures. "And we might as well burn the nearby Felwood just in case, anyway."

"We are NOT blowing up a sacred, ancient temple to Eluna," replies the elven wizard, firmly, giving Aelwyn a LOOK. He knows how you adventurers work!

"...burning the Felwood, on the other hand, sounds like an excellent idea. I should be getting a message back from the wizards back at camp any moment. They'll let us know an estimation. As for the rest, I think we might be able to help with that. It's likely the grounds were consecrated with the return of the temple to them, so it's possible the demons are holding off for now, waiting for that to weaken."

Indeed, the air here feels less 'heavy' than the Felwood itself. Less oppressive.

"I've got a rope trick spell. We can make space in there, rest, keep an eye out on the grounds while we wait."

Maybe Carver has seen this dragon transformation before, maybe she has worked eith Eztli enough times that she is no longer shocked by how powerful she is. Either way she looks about the Felwood with a furrowed brow. Their position was nof the most defensible position.

She nods in agreement with the hunkering down plan all the same.

"...Fine. But if this goes wrong because we're waiting to see what happens, then I know what to blame." Eztli states witth another low growl. "I think Eluna would rather a temple be destroyed than have alexandria be destroyed."

"But sure. Aelwyn really isn't in a state to deal with the stuff here, and I don't want him or carver or the gobber I should know to get hurt because I'm impatient. Alright, maybe this is the best plan." She relents.

Aelwyn lets out a deep breath. "Fine." Then he wheels around and points at Eztli. "And you are a dragon." Then with a nod of his head to the others, the draconian then stomps away, rumbling by himself some choice words.

"Okay, the rope trick plus reinforcements idea sounds good to me." The gobbo agrees and gives the heavy door a little kick, "We'll deal with that later."

The rope trick is prepared and each of you climb inside to rest. You've had a hard journey so far, weakened by a multitude of events that has left each of you at the limit of exhaustion.

The air here is peaceful, in a sennse, and unlike the rest of the Felwood. It's easy enough to rest. Easier than you might've anticipated. Sleep claims you, despite your best efforts to lay a watch -- almost as if you were lulled.

Each of you dream. In your dream, you see the moon, the silver hue of Eluna above, shining down onto the absence of light, a black, light absorbing shape at the bottom. First, you fear the Void, but you recognize soon that it's something else. A gemstone. Black. Opaline. You bend forward to pick it up and feel a sense of love coming from it -- somehow, and particularly in response to a voice eminating from beyond the temple doors. A song, to be sure, even if the words are out of reach. A beautiful one, to be sure, but it's the notes you recognize -- the same notes, though not exactly in the same order, as the steps you marched up in each spire, as if a particular march or rythymn used to ascent was part of whatever ritual of prayer was invoked in climbing them.

And then you each wake, stirred from your slumber by the elven wizard.

"... relief is here. We're going to consecrate the grounds, and then we'll try to open the door."

Indeed, a rather large group has arrived to relieve you. Mythwood wardens, Alexandrian soldiers in livery and armor bearing the symbol of the Phoenix -- a symbol worn by the Wardens as well symbolizing the Union of these peoples, as this whole effort has.

One of those present is an elven priest of Eluna, her hair dyed silver as the moon's face, and her ceremonial robes the work of exquisite craftsmanship and clearly something she's proud of. She must be here to help with the consecration

"Oh goddess of the highest moon above, I beseech you," she calls out, "spare us your grace, shine down on us with love and compassion. Guide us in our strenghts to serve you, and to renew your bonds with this place, these 'Spires of Linneia'..."

She's already begun, you see, and yet you have a feeling that that dream wasn't just a vision of some kind, but a warning.

Love, after all, can sometimes be dangerous.