The story thus far...
Mood:
bright
Topic: Dungeons & Dragons
This is a recap of the campaign thus far...here is who is involved at different points throughout:
Silent Rose - a female pixie ranger & cleric of Florinda, the goddess of Nature. (played by Michelle)
Regar - a male goblin battle mage, worshiper of Fou, the goddess of the Moon. (played by Kyle)
Torag - a male Firbold (giant-kin) cleric of Pryden, the god of Strength. (Played by Matt)
- a male Wemic paladin of Dalnoth, the god of Dragons. (played by Joey)
Nicholas - a male human rogue, worshiper of Tutell, the goddess of Guardians. (played by Joey)
Marconus - a male human mage, worshiper of Socier, the god of Magic. (played by Matt)
Silent Rose was born in a large rose bush community inhabited by many pixies who enjoyed the sunshine and the cool coastal breezes in their forest home on the western shores of the island of Bläha, third largest of the Elven Isles. She grew up in relative peace and security, beloved by her family and by many of nature's wild animals in the area of her rose bush home. In particular, she there were two animals she was the most friendly with, a wolf she called Grey, and a falcon she called Soarer. As she played with her friends in the forest she learned many skills that would eventually lead her to a life of a ranger - a protector of the animals and forest. It was after her decision to dedicate her life to the protection of nature that she first met the goddess of Nature, Florinda.
Florinda appeared to her one day as Silent Rose made her daily patrols of the woods, checking on Grey's den and new pups, and Soarer's nest and new chicks. It was a glorious Spring day. Florinda, taking her avatar form of a human female, was walking through the woods and could feel the sense of harmony and balance that Silent Rose had nurtured there. Seeking out the source of the well being, Florinda found Silent Rose. After that first meeting and many subsequent ones, they became friends, and Florinda blessed Silent Rose for her efforts on behalf of the plants and animals of the forest.
Years later, Silent Rose was awoken from her sleep by a voice in a dream, possibly bordering on a nightmare. The voice told her that Florinda was in trouble and that she had been taken captive while in her human body and was being held by powerful magic that she could not overcome. Florinda was, in fact, missing from the heavens and her absence made all the plants and animals saddened and somewhat unhealthy. Silent Rose set out to find Florinda and help her friend.
Meanwhile, a goblin named Regar now wandered alone on the plains afraid for his life. He was too smart for his own good. The members of his tribe did not trust him because he could summon magic to his call. The tribal members feared that Regar would try to control them, as all magic users were untrustworthy. It was a common superstition of the goblin race, and poor unfortunate Regar was the victim of that circumstance. Bound and gagged, and then tied to a stake, Regar's goblin brothers nearly killed him when they lit the pile of wood that was stacked around him on fire. Regar pleaded with his goddess, Fou the goddess of the Moon, to save his life. He pledged to bind himself to her direction until such a time as she saw fit to release him. As the flames began to lick at Regar's meager clothing and at the sides of his face, all of Regar's hair caught fire. His head looked like a torch of brilliant yellow and orange flame. His tribe began to whoop and scream as they thought they had vanquished the blossoming mage, but lo and behold, Regar felt no pain, and didn't really burn. His hair wasn't on fire, his hair had become fire! The fire ate away his bonds and he stepped through the flames to confront his attackers, once his kin. Without realizing what he was doing, Regar controlled the fire that once was meant to kill him, and he bid it destroy his enemies. The fire consumed his tribe while Regar looked on amazed at his luck. Fou then descended from the heavens and Regar fell to his knees thanking the Lady of the Moon for her blessing and aid.
Fou explained to Regar that he now possessed a special affinity with fire, and that it would do his bidding. His hair would forever burn as it did now, but it would be a mark of her blessing on him - he was never to try and cover it. Fou then told Regar that she needed his help. Her dearest friend, Florinda, the goddess of Nature, was missing from the heavens. Fou explained that she could not search for Florinda while on the planet in her weakened avatar form because she needed to stay in the heavens and answer the prayers of her followers, just as she had answered Regar's that night, as well as claim the souls of her followers who had passed into death so they would not end in the Void. It was an important task that Fou was setting, for Florinda was very dear to her, and a very needed and necessary goddess. Fou was also concerned because while Florinda was absent, who would answer the prayers of Florinda's faithful, who would grant her clerics power, who would collect the souls of her departed? Fou told Regar that the goodly gods, particularly of the Pantheon of Nature were banding together to help manage in Florinda's absence, which was straining all of them, as Florinda had many worshipers and was the primary goddess of their pantheon. Fou directed Regar to seek out a cleric of another pantheon, who would be unaffected by the Pantheon of Nature's current discord, to help find Florinda and return her to the heavens. Regar swore he would, and set out with nothing on his back but burned rags, and nothing in his backpack but the singed remains of his spellbook. Little did he know that Fou had already arranged with two other gods of different pantheons for their assistance. It wasn't that he didn't trust Regar. She didn't know if he could withstand the torture capable by the clerics of the wicked gods who were causing all this trouble, and she didn't want to put his willpower or pain threshold to the test.
In the Rainbow Mountains, shrouded in the thick mist, the giant-kin cleric Torag, the Firbold, walked in harmony with his god, Pryden, the god of Strength. Here on the peaks in the north of Bläha, Torag had recently succeeded in routing a dirty band of gnolls who were desecrating a giant-kin shrine to Pryden. As a reward for Torag's dutiful service, Pryden came to thank the young Firbold in person. Pryden appeared to Torag, seemingly stepping out of the mist and the mountain at the same time, in the form of a Stone Giant, his favored avatar. After a lengthy discussion on the desperate situation happening within the Pantheon of Nature, Pryden directed Torag to set off on a quest to free Florinda. The Pantheon of Might would aid Nature, for the cause behind all this trouble was the wicked goddess Kariya, the goddess of Disease. Pryden despised Kariya and had so for millennia. When Fou of the Moon had sought his aid, initially, Pryden thought to rejected her pleas, feeling at last Nature would loose strength and the Pantheon of Might would rise in the rankings and his powers would grow. Yet, when he learned that Kariya was behind this incident and that her powers would exceed his should her plan succeed, he agreed to help Fou. Now, down on the planet wearing his blue flesh, Pryden knew it was the right thing to do, and not merely for selfish gains. He saw that the plants and animals of the planet seemed sickly and he knew that if Kariya won this battle, that even his giant worshippers might fall prey to her devious diseases if the girding brews made of nature's wild herbs were poisoned and weak. Weakness! Something he desperately loathed. Kariya was the embodiment of weakness, he filthy diseases sapping the strength from even the most muscle bound. Yes, it was decided. Torag, one of his most brave and most steadfastly devout clerics, would free Flordina and set things to right. Pryden directed Torag to seek the plains and a Fou worshipper named Regar.
On this sweltering day in the late Spring, a proud young male wemic of chieftan descent returned to his cliff home above the high plains of Bläha. Four years he had served in the weirs of Wyrmhelm, learning his religion and his war craft from the most revered paladin in the known world, Paragon Argentis, father of the god of Dragons, Dalnoth. The saga of Paragon's tremendous success during the recent episode of heavenly expansion was legendary even though is it was less than two decades old.
A former paladin of Brundin, goddess of War, Paragon had rejected Brundin's teachings and was selected by all the other goodly gods to be the Herald of Change, and eventually, through the testing of many adventures meant to hone Paragons will and focus, during the acquisition of the gods' artifact keys of making, the new god Dalnoth of Dragons was born from Paragons own heart and soul at the peak of the holy mountain, where the citadel of the gods meets the celestial staircase. There, with the planet's own magical power driving the expansion of the heavens, Dalnoth was born - an amalgam of all of Paragon's experiences, and a new race of creatures poured forth. Dragons now roamed Rorschach thanks to Paragon, Herald of Change, fulfiller of the prophecy, and father of a god.
Many traveled from across the Realms to see this most mysterious man and to learn from him. Even a young wemic from the middle of nowhere on a sparsely populated island of Bläha had sold all of his possessions for the pilgrimage to Wyrmhelm on the Gold Coast. Accepted by Paragon, and Paragon's dearest friend Alex Didindoit, the young wemic gave up his name and devoted himself to the noble creatures of Dalnoth, dragons, and to their most pious and chivalrous paladin, Paragon. Now known as Servant of Dalnoth, the wemic was most pleased to learn that he had been given a god quest. Dalnoth had appeared to him in a dream just before dawn, and commanded him to seek out those who would help him free the goddess of Nature, whom and been captured. Dalnoth did not tell his Servant who was behind this ordeal. He merely hinted that ‘she' was a wicked goddess. His Servant felt only Brundin would be so bold, due to his abject hatred of goddess of War thanks to Paragon's training. The ‘wemic-with-no-name' sprung into action, leaping from his cliff home and bounced his way across the plains in search of his Dalnoth-promised allies.
Okay - that was the poetic version of the beginning of the tale. Here is the breakdown of what happened:
- Torag, Regar, the Servant, and Silent Rose all meet and discover their common goals, setting out to find Florinda
- After weeks of searching and countless encounters with all types of monsters, a ruined wizard's tower and a trapped demon within reveals that Florinda is in a modified Forcecage suspended above Lake Small Fry
- Our heros arrive at the lake to find that Florinda is indeed in a Forcecage over the lake, but when they arrive, a trap is triggered and the cage begins to lower into the water
- As the cage lowers, a thin adamantite wizard's tower appears and lightning is hurled from its tip at the heroes
- Then, eight mutant women appear from within the tower to do battle:
- A once beautiful elf that had been mutated into a partial insect, with eight horn like feelers protruding from her head. She had the power to cause the protrusions to grow in length so that she could rip them off and use them as arrows in her mighty bow
- A woman who was somehow the crossbreed between a fire elemental, an elf, and possibly an assimar. She was a flying flaming form of feminity.
- A woman with elvish features but a lion like tail, eyes and claws that wielded a wicked long sword and could spring way like a dexterous cat on steroids.
- A woman with elvish feature except for her goat like horns protruding from her head and cloven feet. She could have been a tiefling, yet our heroes didn't stop to ask.
- A blue skinned woman with huge bat like wings and the ability to call lightning form the heavens who wielded a sword made of lightning
- A beautiful human female with black hair and almond shaped eyes seemed unharmed and not mutated as she arose from the waters, until her eight octopus legs appeared and began to drag Florinda's Forcecage down faster into the water.
- A beautiful and yet hideous pale skinned human woman with four arms and hour legs, hair like black spider webs and multiple shiny black eyes crawled out of a trap door in the ground next to the tower, and finally
- A lovely naked human female who seemed to be fleeing the tower, until her legs lengthening and twisted, and fur sprouted from her bare skin - a werewolf through and through
- The battle raged as the champions took on the eight mutant women and finally succeeded in defeating them
- The wizard in the tower appeared and summoned a gateway to the heart of Dalnoth's volcano right over Regar and Silent Rose, just as they were freeing Florinda from the Forcecage.
- Florinda's body was killed, but her spirit was now free to return to the heavens where she regained her powers.
- Silent Rose's body was vaporized, and although Regar had fire affinity, that wouldn't save him from the magical magma that came from Dalnoth's volcano.
- Florinda returned to the planet with Silent Rose's soul and Regar's soul (wih the blessing of Fou) and gave them to the Servant and Torag
- Torag, and the Servant - who incidently defeated the Lightning woman only to have her regenerate and agree to be his lover due to his prowess and ability to defeat her (so twisted and wrong on so many levels) - took the souls that Florinda had given them in a special magic jar to the nearest town.
- Silent Rose was reincarnated into an elf, and although she misses her pixie form, her elven form is more suited to her new role as a chosen Cleric of Florinda.
- Regar was reincarnated as a man, and was very sad not be a goblin
- Now reunited, the four adventures were about to go back to their homes when Pryden appears to tell Torag thank you for saving Florinda, but also to point out that this rescue hasn't stopped Kariya.
Pryden explains that he has lost contact with his temple in Shunnen on the island of Luzja, and that there is something that is blocking him from seeing Shunnen or from appearing their in avatar form. He directs Torag to find out what is behind this, and put a stop to it. He also tells him that there is a possibility that magical dead zones are appearing, which means, Sorcier, the god of Magic may be under attack.
Torag and his new friends leave Bläha and set out for Luzja by boat, arriving at the town of Narthym. From Narthym the set out to Shunnen. During this route, they are attacked by clerics of Kariya who are indeed spreading a wicked new disease. Narthym is filling with deceased people, too many for the clerics of the goodly gods to heal repeatedly, for the disease seems to come back even to those that have been healed of it. It comes back in a newer deadlier form. After the attack, Torag begins to realize that one of their weapons that he was nicked by passed on a curse, and he is now becoming a wererat. The only known cure for breaking the wererat curse of a Blade of Kariya, is having a cleric of Kariya remove it - and that simply isn't done. Torag has one turning of the moon before he is taken fully by the curse, and now the chase is on.
Our heroes follow the clerics that attacked them and Narthym across the plains of Luzja and finally arrive at Shunnen. They are met with a hail of arrows fired by none other than the goddess of Kariya herself. A gigantic battle ensues, and the clerics of Kariya are defeated, and the goddess' avatar defeated by the Servant of Dalnoth. Torag's curse is lifted mysteriously, but there isn't time to discover how or why. The entire town of Shunnen is dying from disease. Pryden declares that this town is now quarantined.
Each of our heroes falls ill, except the Servant of Dalnoth and his electric woman. Finally, Regar, Silent Rose, and Torag each slip into a coma. The Servant and his woman spend many weeks traveling with their friends' diseased bodies back to the town of Narthym. There for many months they wait until the healers tell them there is nothing they can do. Dalnoth appears and tells his servant that he must go to T'getit for barbarians are attacking a lawful city he had under his protection. The Servant begins to refuse for he will not leave his friends. Dalnoth raises the spirits of his Servant's friends out of their sick bodies and grants them new ones carved of his own flesh so that they may travel temporarily with his Servant. The Servant is happy and takes his friends with him to battle the lawless Barbarians. While gone from their bodies, Regar, Silent Rose, and Torag have a great adventure with the Servant, and they discover the uses of the whirling blades of death. Yet, slowly, the enchantment of Dalnoth's flesh wears away, and they leave the Servant with his electric girl one night and are again bound in the comatose bodies on the island of Luzja.
Meanwhile, Marconus, the son of Xander Dane, the Ranger Protector of Luzja, has decided to take up studying magic, moves to Isothian, and works in the library there. He meets and then weds, Sali, a traveling half-ling bard. He moves with Sali, and her family, to the hidden lava tubes of the high mountains on Luzja's eastern shore. It was easy for him to leave his new life in Isothian due to the tragic events that befell his beloved library and the head librarian he worked for. Theft of the Tome of Lingee was most disturbing as were the increasing reports of people being stolen and sold into slavery. Some whispered of an ancient dark power that was rising in the west and north. Marconus, never one for battles or mysteries, headed to the mountains for a life of quiet contemplation and magical research among his beloved Sali's happy half-ling family.
Finally, the sickness that has left them comatose for TWO YEARS passes and Regar, Torag, and Silent Rose awaken. They are in Narthym and are given all sorts of gifts by the healers who have been studying them for the last two years. There are many sick people who are there and the three heroes donate their now mystical blood to help fight the disease that still rages in Narthym, their blood heals a young boy who only recently came to Narthym for aid. He was sent by the elders of Pender, as small town on the east coast of Luzja, to bed for aid from Narthym. The town has been ravaged by undead, the grossly diseased bodies of the fallen of Pender are returning to spread the plague. Pru, the young boy, offers the town's meager sum of 10 gold pieces to each of the heroes. They agree, more out of the principal of the issue at hand than for the gold. Reequipped by the healers and by the thankful recently healed populace of Narthym, they set off for Pender, leaving Pru in safe hands in Narthym.
Here is a brief run down of what happens:
- The travel to Pender takes 17 days in which they encounter
- a merchant who has been setting traps using decapitated medusa heads to turn unsuspecting travelers into amazingly ‘lifelike' statuary that he is selling for a might profit in Isothian
- a band of highway men who are ambushing peddlers
- a troop of gnolls that are fleeing the romantic advances of a lonely hag in the hills below Mt. Carmel
- Regar prays to Fou and she appears and grants him his wish to be made a goblin with flaming hair again
- a Red Dragon who is out looking for loot to put in its hoard so that its newly acquired aging potions will take it to Wyrm status from its mere Adult status - although, it was a huge Adult red dragon because is was born of Scion lineage dragons.
- Just as our heroes are about to turned to ash, Pryden appears and stops the dragon's breath from consuming them
- Next Dalnoth appears and smites his own creation because it was evil and trying to attain age and power through trickery
- Dalnoth grants Torag the dragon's meat and blood as compensation
- Torag harvests all of the dragon fired glass from where Pryden was standing when the breath was turned, then dips it in the dragons blood, creating red stained windows for a temple he is going to build to Pryden when he retires. He stores the windows, blood and meat in his gigantic bag of holding
- They arrive in Pender, rescue a man and his wife from an angry mob
- They destroy the undead that were set upon the town because the mayor had desecrated the grave of the wife of a local wizard and cleric of an unknown goddess. When the wizard/cleric is defeated, and his mace falls to the ground, a vortex is opened to what appears to be a different plane of existence, and an arm comes out of the vortex and grasps the mace, taking it back to the other plane.
- A woman is found floating in the creek next to the town, and through the combined powers of the heroes she is somehow brought back to life. Now known as Mardy the Reborn, she vows to protect Pender.
- Now on their way back to Narthym, the three heroes are summoned into the heavens for a private meeting with their gods.
Here is the crux of the meeting...Florinda relates to the heroes the absolute truth of the creation of the universe and Rorschach. Everyone, including Fou and Pryden, are stunned. The secret of Ombra is revealed and can only be revealed while shielded within Florinda's home plane in the heavens. She binds all present to an oath that they will not tell anyone on Rorschach for fear that knowledge of Ombra and her dark sisters will increase their worshippers and the two that are currently trapped in the Void.
Florinda then tells the heroes that there are multiple places on Luzja where she, Fou, and Pryden cannot scry or appear. They haven't brought it up to the other gods for fear of reprisal for not sharing the truth of Ombra faster. The three gods tell their most loyal servants that the quest is not over, that Kariya is trying to assist Ombra by wiping out hosts of the goodly gods followers with diseases, and Brundin is attempting to do so with war (thus the barbarian attacks on Dalnoth's cities). Everything is interrelated and it is all becoming clear. If the heroes don't stop Ombra's dark justicars (her evil clerics) from gaining power then Ombra will fully materialize from the Shadow Plane, and with the help of Brundin and Kariya - they will rip open the Void, freeing the two imprisoned goddesses - Ombra's sisters- and the well of universal magic and creation will again be accessible to the triune goddess of Stary Chaos who will dominate as they did before two of them were sealed in the Void - oh, yeah, and the wicked race of Caerci cat people will potentially enslave all humanity again.
This is way over Torag, Regar, and Silent Rose - they don't understand half of what Florinda told them for they have never heard of Stary Chaos or this well of universal magic and creation. They had always been told that Verdith, Flordina, Ordith, and Massey were the original gods born from the magical chaos of the universe. This rattles them to know that the truth of the origin of the universe has been hidden, but they understand the desperate situation. They set off immediately to find these ‘blind spots'.
Pryden sets them down just outside of a blind spot he cannot enter on the slopes of Mt. Carmel. The heroes investigate to find that it is nothing more than a special temple to Runyen being built to house all of the Dwarves on Rorschach. All the Dwarves on the whole planet are moving to Luzja, where the deepest wells of adamandite and mythral have been found, enough to last all the Dwarven craftspeople for millennia. The heroes are sworn to secrecy once it is discovered that they are wandering around the mountain. The Dwarves will eventually let the world know about this place, they just want it to be a huge surprise when they do. They allow the heroes to travel on to Mt. Carmel and seek information on more blind spots from Dwarven cartographers.
Leaving Mt. Carmel for a blind spot just south of the Dwarven enclave, the trio stops at an expanse of mountains filled with lava tubes. Here they chance on Marconus Dane and Sali his wife who disclose to them that they didn't know that Marconus' ring was the cause of a ‘blind spot' right where they live. It is then deduced that Marconus' father's home, and his mother's home in the hills are two more ‘blind spots' - granted powers from the gods of Sorcier and Willet - Magic and the Hunt. The heroes take Marconus' news of slave trading, diseases, and the robbery at Isothian - piece all the clues together and find that everything is pointing to a resurgence of power in the quarantined town of Shunnen.
The teleport from Marconus' blind spot in the mountains directly to Shunnen, as they knew the town well from their days battling Kariya there, and from their prolonged quarantine before they fell into their comas. They arrive to find a huge purple pulsing magical shell around a structure. The attack the shell and the structure defeating the lone Greater Caerci cleric of Ombra that has been left.
During the ransacking and searching of this new temple to Ombra the find:
- Six humans who are alive, but quite obviously being prepared for sacrifice
- Three dead humans being bled over buckets for blood sacrifice on two different alters in the temple - one of the male bodies turns out to be the husband of one of the survivors and the father of the only child survivors
- Two rooms filled with ancient Caerci manuscripts
- A piece of a star on a special pedestal
- A star shaped summoning room
- A giant room with wall covered in the story of how even though Brundin was the cause of the Stary Chaos goddesses fall, and the reason they were sealed into the Void, she made a bargain with them that it would only be fore 500 years, and that she would let them out if they would share their power with her
- A mysterious blue metal is found that blocks all types of magic - the rest of the rooms of the temple have been made impervious to its effects, except for the rooms that the captives are in and the ceiling of the captives rooms, which is what is causing the blind spot over Shunnen
- Pryden can now appear because the cleric who was channeling the powers of the metal is dead. Pryden takes the library of scrolls and leaves (he goes to the Dwarves who are working to solve the problem of keeping the Void sealed)
The heroes take care of the captives for a few days and attempt to take them to Narthym. When all their strength returns four of the six captives do not wish to go to Narthym. The female Druid, leaves via plant walking and travels to summon Xander Dane to Shunnen. The sailor from Onpletin decides he wants to get back to the sea and takes off south by himself before the heroes realize he was involved in the slave trade that brought the captives there in the first place. Cristo, the loner, wants to return to his home town of Ayrath. The crazy woman who sold her family into indentured servatitude to the sailor only to be sold as slaves to the Greater Caerci cleric wants to go with Cristo. The little boy, her son, knows his mother is crazy and wants to stay with Torag. Pernal, a young man from Logath who was stolen from his parents agrees to go to Narthym since it isn't that far from Logath, and he could be home in a few days walk from there.
Cristo and the crazy mother, named Carrie, leave for Ayrath. The heroes begin to travel north, but several encounters with odd weather, and the general danger of things surrounding them leads Torag to believe that Vance, the boy, should be teleported to Narthym. The boy doesn't want to go to Narthym, he wants to be with Torag. Torag decides to send the boy to live with Marconus and Sali while he is busy mopping up this mess about Ombra. Regar teleports Vance there with a note from Torag, then teleports back to their camp. Then he decides to try to teleport Pernal to Narthym. Unfortunately, his spell doesn't go off as planned and they appear a mile from Narthym and several dozen feet in the air too boot. Pernal falls and cracks his skull on a rock and begins to bleed out. Regar regains consciousness and teleports them back to Torag and Silent Rose. Torga heals Pernal and puts him in a deep sleep so he can rest. During the night though, the camp is attacked by a Red Dragolich who kills Pernal in his sleep and nearly kills Torag and Silent Rose. Thanks to Florinda though, and a god-call made by Silent Rose to get Florinda there, the Dragolich is destroyed buried under a mountain of holy direct, forever entombed on now the only mountain that stands like a dagger point into the sky on the plains just east of Shunnen, in the Cope-Pisciotta River Valley.
Meanwhile, Nicholas a trap tester who has been working for the Dwarven vault and lock makers of Mt. Carmel for the last five years is sent on a journey by the Dwarves to find out about this mysterious blue metal they have heard of, as news from Ayrath is that someone there knows where to find some. Nicholas travels south by the river and meets Xander Dane just as he is coming out of the mountains. They spend a cordial night together is discussion, as Xander tells Nicholas that he is being summoned to the west coast on urgent matters. Nicholas heads south and encounters a roving band of Ogre Magi. He kills two and the others take gaseous form and flee. He starts to bury what is left of their meal (a human female on a spit) when the charcoaled and crusty human moves and reveals she is still alive, yet her tongue has been cut out. Nicholas rushes her to Ayrath to the Temple of Velergin - god of Healers. She is fully healed and restored. Nicholas discovers she is a spell caster named Elsa, who was traveling in the company of a woman name Carrie, and a man named Cristo. Cristo sold Carrie and Elsa to the Ogre Magi to save his own hide. Nicholas locates Cristo in a pit of a bar down by the docks, and after learning there is a pricy bounty on Cristo's head, convinces the drunken Cristo to commit suicide. The bounty is given to Elsa at Nicholas' request, who re-equips herself for her wizard craft.
Just as Nicholas and Elsa leave the guild house where she has acquired scrolls and a blank spellbook to try and rebuild her own spellbook lost to the Ogre Magi, an odd flickering occurs...
All the worshipers of the gods doing battle on Luzja appear in a large circle surrounding the gods avatars, transported from wherever they were on Luzja to this spot at this moment. The gods doing battle are:
Brundin
Kariya
Mauvais
Ombra
Against
Florinda
Tutell
Fou
Pryden
The mortals flicker and fade in an out as the gods draw upon their worshipers faith for strength. The evil gods begin to loose though, and one by one they and their worshipers ‘pop' out of the circle fleeing the battle. Finally, Flordina, Tutell, Fou, and Pryden are victorious as Dalnoth arrives and they overpower the evil gods. All the goodly gods worshipers are thanked for their faithfulness and sent home, except for Nicholas, Torag, Regar, and Silent Rose. Elsa, who does not worship a god at all is stunned by what she witnessed. She doesn't know why she was brought there, but she is beginning to believe that their really are gods and that she should probably pick one to worship or her soul could real end up in the Void.
Tutell retrieves a special devise from her worshipers who came to her call and then sends them back to Mt. Carmel, their home. Thanks to the Caerci library delivered by Pryden, the Dwarves were able to create a device to mold the blue metal, if Nicholas can find some. Torag steps forward, as does Regar, and gives Nicholas the metal they seized from the Caerci Temple to Ombra.
Everyone realizes they are now alone - the gods have left - and they are standing in the middle of the blackened land on Luzja that can only be one place - the Dead Zone. Eager to turn the metal into a magical lock that no magic can ever pick or destroy, Nicholas explains to the heroes that he is on a quest to keep some door sealed. The heroes realize that they are on the same quest. They begin to search for the next ‘blind spot' that is being caused by Ombras Dark Justicars and prevent the door to the Void from being opened.
Everyone then realizes - Ombra has materialized fully on the Prime Material plane.
celebratory
a-ok
incredulous
cheeky
happy