- GM’s note: Grant finally cuts loose in the ruins of Nyrath. Allies arrive. Epic battle ensues.
Day 45 – Thunderday – 30th Day of Rainmoot (Spring)
- Faced with the golden-scaled leader of the Lurkers, and the demon lord Akyshigal, and the Crawler High Priestess Sylkara (Sylvia), Grant decides that the time for deception is over. Surrounded by Lurker acolytes and facing multiple sorcerers, he cuts loose, wielding Umbra. (GM’s note – Ethan can sense this disturbance over a hundred miles away) A blast hurls the entire lot of them back and he begins blasting away with his wrist weapon.
- Sylkara taps into the Umbra and generates a defensive shield. Quick as lightning, Grant draws Gorgorin (his primal damage weapon) and rushes her, using Umbra to breach her defensive shield. He cuts her down in a single blow and then turns his attention to Akyishigal, blasting away with his wrist blaster to drive him back. The demon lord explodes into tens of thousands of cockroaches who begin scuttling into a network of crevices that are forming across the stone floor. The demon lord appears to be fleeing.
- Grant tries to stop Akyishigal from retreating. He uses Umbra to destroy the stone floor. Many of the fleeing cockroaches are torn apart but something new begins to emerge from the larger rifts in the floor. These appear to be spiders of some kind – with long, spine-like legs. They are large. Very large.
- Protecting the hostage who was brought to this chamber to be sacrificed, Grant blasts left and right, slaying some of the Lurker priests that remain. The golden-scaled Lurker leaves the chamber, protected by two guards. An alarm sounds and Grant hears inhuman hooting noises in the distance.
- Deciding it is time to retreat, he steers the freed prisoner back out of the temple and he produces an Icon. It is time to call in reinforcements. He reaches out and contacts Cal. He explains that there is no time and no space to bring in an army. He needs ten of Cal’s best and he needs them now.
* Cal (by Jason Rainville), Yaeger Zane (by Sam Denmark), Cordelias (by Gordon Napier)
- Cal arrives first, quickly followed by the winged Yaeger Zane (who is carrying a hefty looking battle axe), Cordelias (dressed in fine-armour), Erik (Drake’s son), a swashbuckler named Flynn, a strange furry cat-like person named Riga, twin bald headed warriors named Darro and Fix, and an eight-foot man with numerous deformities called Nan.
- Grant quickly explains that he needs to pursue the golden-scaled Lurker priest in one direction, but there are at least two hundred Lurkers about to come down the corridor from the other way. Yaeger gives a grin and thumbs in the direction of the hooting Lurker horde. Most of the others follow Yaeger, but both Cal and Flynn decide to follow Grant’s lead.
- What follows then is a battle through the catacombs. Grant, Cal and Flynn re-engage the abyssal spiders and the remaining Lurker priests. While Cal investigates what the priests have been up to, and Flynn clears out of the nearby chambers, Grant heads after the golden-scaled Lurker. After a number of wrong turns, and a series of battles against Lurkers (some of whom have been bolstered with Umbra at the expense of shortening their lifespan), Grant finds a chamber which shows that the Lurkers have been experimenting, blending Lurkers and humans and creating hideous hybrids. He kills some ‘super’ Lurkers that are significantly stronger than the normal Lurkers and eventually makes his way back to Flynn and Cal. Somehow the golden-scaled Lurker has given them the slip for the moment. The sounds of battle are still raging in the distance as Yaeger, Erik, Cordelias and the others do battle against the Lurkers.
- Frustrated, Grant retraces his steps and realises that the golden-scaled Lurker has attempted to join the rest of the Lurker army. He wasn’t fleeing – he was trying to get reinforcements. Grant tries to join the battle from the other side, but runs into the golden-scaled Lurker as he flees from Yaeger’s onslaught. Grant battles the golden-scaled Lurker’s minions, cuts them down and subdues the Lurker lord using Umbra, figuring to interrogate him later.
- Yaeger’s battle against the Lurker army is terrible. The Lurkers have demonic allies, and the Crawler Priestess Iriskara (Irina) fights with them. She herself is a powerhouse with Ranked Strength and Warfare. However, the Lurker army is still no match for three Lords of Gossamer (Yaeger Zane, Cordelias and Erik) and the allies that they have brought with them. The Lords of Gossamer cut through the army and leave none alive.
- With the battle ended, Grant goes looking for the remaining prisoners. He finds the Temple of Many Frogs that he knew to be here, and is rewarded for ‘purifying the taint’. In future, frogs will be his allies – he only needs to call upon them. Red himself is found in one of the cells. Most of his band have already been sacrificed to the Crawler, but Red was being kept alive.
- Looking over the bodies of Iriskara (Irina) and Sylkara (Sylvia), Grant realises that there is one Crawler Priest left – Nadakara (Nadia), the shadow walker. He assumes that she will still try to capture and kill Marian or Red if she can – but she is either operating alone, or with greatly diminished resources. He wonders what she will do next.
Day 46 – Fireday – 31st Day of Rainmoot (Spring)
- The Lords of Gossamer have finished ransacking the ruined city of Nyrath. They have gathered all of the information that they could from the place. Grant has interrogated Shush’Arish, the golden-scaled Lurker. Shush’Arish is himself a reincarnation of the Lurker high priest who was around when Tyland Redmantle first battled the Crawler. He did not wish to tell Grant anything, but Grant is most persuasive (ie: he used Umbra to weaken the priest’s defenses). Shush’Arish believes that the Crawler will still be triumphant, even if none of Tyland Redmantle’s descendents can be sacrificed as the ‘Fifth Sacrifice’. Nadakara (Nadia) will sacrifice herself if she has to, and bring about the Crawler’s return. Shush’Arish believes that the Crawler is invincible and cannot be killed. Grant then spends considerable time with Shush’Arish, pressing him for any weakness in their ‘God’. He applies considerable pressure using Umbra and the priest finally confesses that there may be a vulnerability. The Crawler is almost invulnerable and given time it can heal any wound, but it may be killed if its melon-sized brain is destroyed. The brain is deep within the Crawler at the base of its throat!
- Armed with this information, the Lords of Gossamer decide to return to Tyland Mill. They have ten days until the next full moon - there is plenty of time.
Meanwhile, what happened to Ethan?
- Ethan and Magnus departed the Weeping Castle on the Thunderday (Day 45) and camped on the side of the road that night. That evening when Magnus is deeply asleep, a mist forms and Ethan is ambushed.
- Ethan is expecting trouble but is surprised when Lady Sorrenminx is the one who appears through the mist. (GM’s note - Ethan met Lady Sorrenminx during the Courts of the Shadow Fey story arc, which we will flashback to.) Ethan considers Sorrenminx to be a friend. She is from the River Court, and is an accomplished sorceress and swordswoman.
* Lady Sorrenminx (by Bryan Syme)
- Assuming that she is here to bargain for Lord Wynterlyr’s Ring, Ethan gets to his feet to talk with her. But he is then attacked from behind by Baron Suvid, the two-foot tall ‘fastest blademan’ of the Courts. Baron Suvid and Ethan have briefly crossed swords before, but never in anger. Ethan knows how fast the Baron is - he is superhumanly fast, like something out of a comic book - and Ethan is taken completely by surprise. Attacking silently, the Baron stabs Ethan from behind multiple times to bring him down.
- Ethan rarely uses Eidolon in combat, but he does so here. Despite grievous wounds to his legs and his back, he continues to function. But the Baron does not stop there - he has seen Ethan fight before and has a measure of him. Suvid goes for the Ring and cuts two of Ethan’s fingers off with his blade.
- But before Suvid can grab the Ring and bolt, Ethan cuts loose. He is angry. Very angry. He uses his favoured ‘force push’ to hurl both Suvid and Sorrenminx away, and retrieves his severed fingers (intending to reattach them if possible).
- Seeing how enraged Ethan is, Sorrenminx thinks better of drawing steel against him and she chooses to abandon Suvid and slip away into the mist. But Baron Suvid is unwilling to give up - he speeds back in, gets under Ethan’s guard and stabs him again. Ethan sees red and throws Suvid back again, smashing the small fey into a tree with enough force to shake leaves free from its branches. This time Suvid is hurt, but still unwilling to back down. Drawing steel, Ethan uses Eidolon to strengthen the blade. He believes that he can match Suvid in a straight fight. His left hand is wounded but he is right-handed. Eidolon should hold him together as long as nothing else happens.
- Baron Suvid considers for a moment, and then vanishes into the mist with a blur of movement. Ethan expects Suvid to come running at him again from a different direction, using the mist as cover, but no further attack comes. While he waits, Ethan uses Eidolon to heal his wounds. When he is sure that the danger has passed and that Suvid has gone, he begins working on reattaching his severed fingers. He has never lost digits or limbs before and it takes him some time to make the reconnection.
- More angry than frightened, Ethan wonders if Sorrenminx came to parley but Baron Suvid had other ideas. Regardless, he decides that the fey will keep coming for him whilst he has the Ring.
- Magnus is completely oblivious to the fight, and Ethan says nothing of it in the morning. They continue onto Tyland Mill as if nothing has happened.
- It is not until Fireday (Day 46) that Grant contact him via Icon to report that the Lords of Gossamer have attacked the Ruins of Nyrath, that Sylvia and Irina are both slain, and the remaining sister Nadia (Nadakara) is still on the loose. The Lords of Gossamer come through to Tyland Mill via the Icon contact, along with the surviving prisoners.
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