Session 33:
Rees ran sobbing into the vineyards behind her house, while Alisaadi called out apologies and chased after. Rees collapsed before a huge, white marble statue of an elven woman reaching heavenward. Ali rightly guessed it was a memorial to Rees's late mother, with a golden plaque engraved in Draconic:
Here my golden beauty once slept.Rees and Ali made peace and the girl admitted she only got upset because of how much the shaman reminded her of her mother.
She asked if Alisaadi wanted to know a secret, one her father told her to only share with those she trusted most dearly. She activated a secret means of sliding back the statue and accessed a white, marble staircase leading into the earth. The two entered. As Rees hummed old songs her mother used to sing her, gold ore veins in the walls began glowing brightly. At the bottom, white crystals burst into light across the ceiling and revealed a sprawling cavern. From the looks of it, and Ali was something of an expert on this topic, the cavern appeared to be an old dragon lair.
Ali thanked the little girl dearly for sharing her secret hideaway and Rees admitted her last secret, that the lair once belonged to her mother Yesenya. The little girl revealed her true half-dragon form, her skin turning to fine, golden scale and her freckles becoming diamonds. Alisaadi bowed before her. They talked of mutual dragon acquaintances, after which Rees begged Ali go and investigate her father's disappearance, as she trusted her more than two, smelly men. The shaman agreed, making the girl promise she would stay safe and hidden.
Dante and Izaki confronted the old priests about the blood pooled under the golden statue. The old priests asked that it be forgotten, as they too were allies of the Minister. Before they offered anything more, Alisaadi kicked the church doors in and demanded the priests tell her where Firnod Powers was hidden.
Even as the shaman accused the three men of being unfit to worship Raya, the priests tore off their Rayan robes to reveal golden vestments and mirror masks. They were indeed faithful priests of the goddess, just not Raya. The golden idol and their true mistress was the dark goddess Pride, otherwise known as Superbia. They'd been keeping the people of Lastlight fooled and docile for generations.
Dante first sought to calm Alisaadi with his gaze, but her rage was far too great. With news that Firnod was to be sacrificed, the fight was on. Alisaadi bathed the high priest in acid and Dante finished the job, killing the ancient man before he'd even a chance to act. Izaki practically killed the second priest with a single blow and the third priest quickly surrendered.
Izaki spared the old man and Alisaadi questioned him harshly, gleaning that below the church was a foundry run by devils, with a creature known as Tazjaree overseeing. Just as the Minister was a devil directly inspired by Gula, Tazjaree was a devil of Superbia. Having gotten all she could out of him, Ali let the frightened villain hobble away.
The three of them proceeded down the blood streaked stairs and into the devils' foundry...
Miles and miles away, Sirocco kept a vigilant watch over camp. When he heard footsteps, the goblin went to wake Sev, but was suddenly taken over by powerful magic and forced to step away and remove his bow. A decrepit goblin woman with iron teeth and a rickety bow stepped into the clearing, but with the voice of the Creature of the Crossroads. It didn't think their last encounter at the road signs was fair and wanted another challenge. Sirocco regained control of his body and a target sprung out of the ground thirty yards back. The creature took aim and fired, only to miss... Sirocco struck it easily. The creature grew annoyed and the target sprouted legs, bounding here and there. Sirocco was given the first go and he nailed it like it was nothing. Furious, the creature howled and the target sprouted wings, flapping erratically across the sky. Sirocco trained his bow for the third time and pierced the target's heart. It fell dead while the creature fumed, stomping and cursing. As the tantrum raged, the creature's voice grew tinier and its physical form shrunk, smaller and smaller until it zapped out of existence.
Now any person in a normal sleep would have been woken by such an event, but Sev had entered a natural repose and was contacted by his elemental guide Stirba. She informed him of how things were going in the North and what had to be done to ensure the West did not suffer a similar fate. Three deaths were called for, though it pained Stirba to ask her arch druid to become a death dealer. The greatest adversary in the West was the demon lord Falst, who, if given enough time, would grow in might equal to the Ice Queen. However, he was still weak from his release and could be killed, if Sev and his friends acted quickly. In order to reach him, however, Sev would need to defeat Falst's two able guardians and allies. One Sev had already met, the would-be vampire king Kasper, emboldened by the swords of his father and demonic resources. The other was Tisiphone Huma, who had killed her sisters and taken control of House Huma. She currently harbored her compatriots in House Huma, a well-fortified eyrie. Stirba thanked Sev for doing what need to be done to preserve the world and the goblin awoke.
The green pair made their way across the hills at daybreak and by dusk entered Lastlight, only to find it boarded up for the night. Fox as their guide, they found the Ministry well enough, though the animal absolutely refused to enter. The goblins knocked and entered, though, passing through a veil of infernal shadow...
Nailo returned to the pool where he'd spoken to Daithrak, Taras sleepily following afterward. An off comment led to Taras revealing a little secret he'd been keeping from his master (or his human familiar if you happened to ask him). Shadow stuff billowed around him and he took on the form of a pale, creepy six year old human, with a black bowl haircut and a gray school uniform. Nailo wasn't very impressed, provoking the shadow wyrmling into moving off to the side and experiment with untold number of hair styles and outfits. Ultimately Taras kept his little antichrist appearance.
The large black dragon Graeme returned, spitting out what was left of Linai onto the ground, nothing much more than some gnawed upon bones and scraps of hair and flesh. He apologized for the lack of stuff, but the animals had gotten to her. Daithrak rose from the marsh and she and Nailo finalized their arrangements involving kidnapping and cloning...
Alisaadi, Izaki and Dante took the blood-streaked stairs into a mine shaft. It opened up into a large cavern containing a massive furnace and hundreds of infernal bee workers. With the door into the next chamber clearly in sight, Dante became invisible and threw a few levers and switches along the furnace, throwing the place into chaos as the furnace went out and steam billowed. Ali, Izaki and eventually Dante made it into the adjacent passage. The next room was a mold library, with massive iron molds in the likenesses of monolithic limbs, mighty gears, pillars, statues and huge metal friezes. An iron golem activated and chased them out of the room, actually pounding down the walls once they slipped through a passage too small for it to follow.
The boom, boom, boom of iron fists tearing down the foundry behind them, the trio entered the pouring room. There they found Aeryn, bound to a mold, half-covered in molten gold so that her upper body was perfectly preserved, while the rest of her had melted away into a soupy, flesh-blood mess. Firnod, bound to another mold and about to be similarly done away with, screamed for help. The three took care of the fire devil overseer and freed the elf lord. Ali gave him her sword Smirk to use as they continued on. They passed a through a cooling and degating room unnoticed, then fought two sand devils in the blasting room, finally coming to the end of the devil's foundry: the finishing room.
A long, high-ceilinged great hall, the finishing room had two long wooden tables running the length of either side wall, occupied by sixty imps working on finishing details and the smaller machinery for the die cuts. But the dominant feature and the one that provoked Alisaadi out of stealth and into a dragon's rage was the sight of the gargantuan gold dragon smothered in hardened gold casing, who Ali immediately recognized as Rees's mother Yesenya. She burst into the room, despite Dante's desire for some secrecy, and demanded to know who killed the elder dragon. That's when Ali noticed what Izaki and Dante had seen all along, the devil lounging along the dragon's neck. She looked like a statue of a human made entirely of gold with great bat wings and a scorpion tail. This was Tazjaree whom the old priest had spoken of. She seemed most pleased with how upset the dragon shaman had gotten and before long another battle began...
Sev and Sirocco met with the Minister in all his gross glory, the arch druid even offering him one of the Hound's teeth as a gift of good will. He accepted gleefully and gave Sev a ring in turn, one that if turned at exactly the right moment would summon infernal aid. He insisted the goblin put it on and seemed most pleased when he did so. While the two hammered out the simple deal of agreeing to help each other destroy Falst and Kasper, Sirocco was chased up a pillar by the hungry, hungry whores who moaned for his little green bod. Business complete, they left, all too happy to be out of the sinister abode...
Nailo and Taras made their way toward Lastlight, where Daithrak's chosen quarry lived, reaching it by nightfall. On the ground, they encountered Sev and Sirocco. After some quick catch up and introductions, Nailo, Sev and Sirocco, with Taras and Fox behind them, made for the Church looking to reunite the group. Finding three dead priests and a broken altar was a good indication they'd been that way and the shadow lord, arch druid and desert sniper descended into the foundry.
They passed to the brink of a passage where hundreds of devilish giant bees toiled in rekindling a massive furnace. So preoccupied, the group stealthily bypassed them, making it to another passage. Despite it being blocked off by tons of fallen rock, the arch druid summoned a fiery worm which bore through the obstruction in under a minute. They entered room after ruined room, each having a huge hole broken through the wall. They also heard faint booming, eventually meeting the boomer. The iron golem turned and attacked the new intruders. Nailo webbed it next to slothy Sev and fled into the finishing room, while Sirocco and Sev fought on...
The battle was at a stand still, Tazjaree and Dante trading blow for devastating blow in mid air, while Ali and Izaki killed slews of imps that entered their range. Suddenly the room filled with magic darkness and shook with a dragon roar. Nailo demanded everyone cease the pointless fighting, as they were all allies against the demon lord Falst. If they didn't stop, he'd kill them, and his voice sounded venomously sincere.
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