Divine Group, Session 1

On the harsh, frozen Roam, the parties trudged, pelted by supernatural weather like acid hail and blood rain. In the snow-choked mists they watched monsters and barbarians flee, but the group's destination was their very source of terror: Veluvia, Shalraza's strongest demon base. Thoughts heavy with all that had transpired and been learned in the last four weeks, it was a relief when the groups met.

Sev, Serren, Sirocco, Finduilas, Matthias, Victoria, Tasha, and Izaki.

Reunited, the groups traded words, some warm, some skeptical, some mumbles, and made camp. Everyone became reacquainted over a fire and roasted caribou, new friends were made, and at least one foot caught fire. It was plainly apparent, despite the casualness, that both parties had grown in power and presence since last meeting (and one in belly size).

The next day the group continued on what they knew was the final stretch to Veluvia, though the biting winds had been replaced with thick, sickly cloud banks which blanketed everything in a stale, rotten fog. Victoria's troops acted as silent escorts, flanking the mounted party. Talk drifted to Finduilas's ordeal in the fire plane, then uneasy silence before thunder crashed over head and blood drops began to speckle the ground and group.

Sirocco, who'd been riding ahead, flew back through the fog in a panic, warning they were but a stone's throw from the walls. As the wind shifted, there came a strong stench of decay and faint chittering. Serren slipped into the ethereal, discovering what the others would a few minutes later as the storm picked up and tore the fog from the lower city. Spiders! And not the natural kind. They ranged from the size of dogs to horses, select few pushing the breadth of carriages! They swarmed by the thousands, the walls black with eight-legged, fanged insects. Victoria ordered her doomed legion forward just as the spiders took notice. There might have been a climactic and potentially fatal battle, but Serren's nightmare nudged each of the party members and brought them into the safety of the ethereal plane.

In that colorless, soundless reflection of life, the cloud cover was translucent and the highest tiers of Veluvia laid exposed. To the group's combined horror, they saw a two hundred foot tall titan looking like the decayed husk of a mammoth angel. It's bare-bone wings were still, in fact its entire frame thusly so, as it sat on the largest fortress in Veluvia like some sort of throne. Horns spiraled from the back of its head, around its jaw line, and covered its eyes... though no doubt the epic being could see very well, even with the storm rolling across its form. As the group continued to gape, half-spider demons in four large hunting parties left the gates, systematically exploring the area, likely in search of the group.

Victoria, torn at the sight, suspected she might be able to control the massive being, and at the very least was going to try. She entrusted Finduilas with her severed pinky to do with what she will should things go ill, and with such outcome likely the dark sorceress took flight, in the process drawing the attention of the half-demons (who could see into the ethereal plane with one of their eight eyes). They chased her to a point, leaping over walls, rubble and rooftops in hot pursuit and with supernatural grace, but veered away once they grew too near to the brooding titan.

Meanwhile, the group slipped through a crack in the wall and into the streets, flooded with rubble, corpses and scavenging undead. Spiders also infested every corner and crevice, though it seemed nothing in the area could tell they were there.

Hovering before the titan's horn-masked gaze, Victoria stated her intent in the name of Laz. In a surprising exchange, the being who came to be known as Tameroc the Blind expressed his vague awareness of his father Laz's return, and a growing distaste for his mother's spider servants. He most especially despised their Crawling Queen Anansiel. Seizing the opportunity, Victoria managed to make a deal, though at once point she nearly angered the titan into snuffing her out of existence. Recovering quickly, Victoria promised to destroy Anansiel. Tameroc said that he could not help, but he could decide not to do anything at all, even if they were seeking the Hoping. In a massive quake, the titan rose, revealing a hole in the wall where his back once rested. Victoria quickly gathered the group and through various means of flight entered in, landing in the lowest sub-basement of the mighty fortress.

Before much of the area could be discerned, Tameroc sat back down and all light was snuffed. It smelled of the dead and chittering abounded. Of those that could see in darkness, Sev was the only with sufficient knowledge of spiders to recognize the entire room was covered in nests of the most poison varieties the continent over. After informing the group, they became understandably paranoid. Hundreds of the natural spiders scurried here and there, but Sev managed to talk them into allowing the group passage through, as well as discerning Anansiel was somewhere down below, past earth and water.

Turning the corner, the group came to a sprawling storeroom filled with food stuffs, however the crates, bags and barrels contained the dried and preserved remains of Veluvians (woman and children) to feed the demons and spiders stationed in the city for the long months of war ahead. It was a gruesome sight that unnerved even Victoria and Izaki. When a fat spider crept out the side of a little, dried girls frozen scream, Tasha even fainted.

Experience: 2,800
Objectives:
1. Find the Hoping
2. Kill Anansiel