Stonespeaker Saga, Part 2
Evening had fallen on the Nabarrack Tribe’s new home. When the darkness began to set in, the young ones would gather near the Stonespeaker’s hut, ready to hear another story or tale of wisdom before they were sent off to bed. The able bodied sharpened the spears and oiled the armor the hunting party would use the next day, while the older and less physical tribe members saw to cleaning up the evening’s meals. Khez’ran smiled as the children gathered around him, clamoring at him to tell another story. It had been many moons since he’d taken over the smaller duties of the Stonespeaker from his father, who mostly saw to the tribe’s leadership and direction now. The young Stonespeaker gathered the children in close, and smiled down to all of them.
“Tell me, younglings, which story would you like to hear tonight? Or should I finish the tale from our last eve?” He knew well what their answer would be. He’d told this story many times now, and every time, the children stood in awe of it. He knew that one day soon, he would be called upon to take a wife, and sire children of his own. One of those children would fall in love with this tale as he did, and would eventually take over a Stonespeaker as well.
In his wisdom, he was correct. The children all answered unanimously, with a great cheer. They wanted to hear the tale of the heroes who saved the world from the evil Sorceress. Khez’ran laughed.
“Of course, of course, younglings! Now, gather round. Find a seat. Now… where did we leave off… Sev’rak, do you remember?” he looked to a girl of maybe fifteen cycles, with striking red hair and violet eyes. She perked up at the mention of her name.
“Ah, yes, Stonespeaker. The evil Sorceress had just retreated to the sky and devoured her crystals of power. The heroes had gathered round and prepared for further battle.” Khez’ran smiled at the girl. She was as sharp in wit as her very own spear. She would make a fine huntress one day. He hoped to guide her well.
“Of course, of course. Now then. We return to our tale, where we found the heroes having bested Sindaria and her crystals. They now found themselves surrounded by two powerful elemental fiends in great obsidian armor. A towering fire elemental, and a thundering earth elemental…”
Vatyrius rushed forth, raising his maul high, and brought it crashing down upon the earth myrmidon’s obsidian plate armor. A metallic clang crashed out over that battlefield. The great earthen creature retaliated, bringing its own, much larger maul down towards the Paladin. However, Vatyrius was heavily armored, and a quick thinker. He raised his own maul upwards, using the momentum from his previous swing, to deflect the elemental’s weapon to his side, avoiding it entirely. The earthen weapon crashed into the dark stone floor, creating a thunderous boom that echoed throughout that room.
On the other side of the room, the fire myrmidon, raising its great obsidian blades, wreathed in flames, lashed out at Carric’s summoned earth elemental, chipping away at its hardened form. Flames scorched the stones, washing out over it. Through the heat and smoke, three blasts of energy shot through the room. Tanriel’s eldritch blasts zipped over those fighting elementals, over Vatyrius’ head, and right into the earth myrmidon’s chestplate. The great elemental staggered backwards several feet from the force of the blow, using its maul to stabilize itself once more.
The sound of battle echoed loudly through that chamber, challenged only by the pulsing, violent energies that cocooned Sindaria’s form above. Amidst the cacophony, Willow attempted to maintain her concentration on her summoned fire elemental, while trying to focus on casting other offensive spells. Turning to aim at the fire myrmidon, she arced another blast of green lightning at her foe, but in the process, felt her concentrated upon spell snap back to her. She’d lost the fire elemental. With a gulp, she silently hoped that elemental would just… keep fighting for them, and not turn on them at all!
Battle continued. Carric’s earth elemental struck back at the fire myrmidon, landing several hits with its great stony fists. Aust closed in near that fiery foe, but devoted his attention to healing himself, as he’d sustained significant damage from channeling all that lightning from the crystals before. Carric took this opportunity to close in on the fire myrmidon as well, his body still that of an earth elemental himself, and brought his own stony fists down upon the creature’s black armor. Within a few seconds, the fire myrmidon looked as if it was beginning to weaken. That combined attack from the two earthen elementals was leaving it staggering.
Honta slipped across the room and snuck in behind the stumbling earth myrmidon, finding a weak spot in its armor and driving his magical blades through it. Vatyrius served as a distraction, allowing Honta to strike with deadly precision. Cracks began to form in the crust of that great beast, who then turned to focus on Honta. Vatyrius seized on this distraction, yelling loudly, as his maul burst into hellish flames.
“For Tanriel, and for Asmodeus!” The flaming maul crashed into the elemental myrmidon with the power of a corrupted smite, shattering a large chunk of rock from the elemental’s body. It emitted a rocky grinding noise akin to a scream, and took out its rage on the small and squishy looking rogue behind it. It let go of its powerful maul, and instead attempted to bash the rogue with its large and powerful fists. While Honta dodged the first attack, he was not so lucky when the second came to call. The large boulder crashed into Honta’s gut and crushed him into the wall behind him. Honta screamed out in agony as he felt several ribs crack.
“Fuck.. Aust! Little help!” the rogue called out with a wheeze, as Tanriel attempted to rush to his rescue. With a heavy sigh, she lobbed several more Eldritch Blasts in the earth myrmidon’s direction.
“Idiot. You’re supposed to dodge the boulders, not hug them. You’re not Carric, Honta. Do better.” She remarked snidely, as the beams smashed into the elemental’s armor, forcing another grinding scream, and denting its defenses in several places. Cracks formed all through its body, as it began to crumble apart. They nearly had it now. Reeling from the pain and impact, the creature dropped Honta, freeing him from that crushing force against the wall.
The fire myrmidon wouldn’t fare much better for long, either. Willow continued to focus her Witch Bolt upon it, surging green lightning into its fiery form. Carric’s elemental companion bashed away at its armor, denting it further, and weakening the intensity of its flame. Aust then spotted a moment to strike – if he could get past Carric’s earth elemental, then he could flank the fire myrmidon and get a good few strikes in, and perhaps vanquish it. He quickly dove between the elemental’s boulder-stacked legs, catching a glimpse of Willow’s fire elemental as he did. The elemental turned and attempted to strike him with its fiery fists, much to Aust’s confusion. Had the elemental turned on them? Quickly he made his way to the other side of the fire myrmidon, setting his focus upon that creature first. Willow’s elemental would have to wait. So would Honta.
“Stay alive just a little longer, Honta! I’ll get to you after we get rid of this fire myrmidon. Willow! What the hell is up with your elemental?” the Cleric called out over the din of battle. Willow gave Aust an apologetic, sheepish look. That was all he needed to know. Her fire elemental was an enemy now.
Carric then felt the heat from Willow’s elemental as it surged over his body, and began to scorch his rocky flesh. Doing his best to shrug off the searing pain he felt from being inside of that living flame, he continued his focused assault on the fire myrmidon, determined to bring it down once and for all. He swung his fists towards the myrmidon, but, distracted by the flames all around him, completely missed his foe. It seems he might have to deal with the immediate threat Willow had created before he’d be able to strike back. That same fire elemental took the opportunity, and Carric’s distraction, to land several blows of its own, cracking Carric’s rock plated flesh.
Honta, still reeling from his previous injury, swallowed his pain down and spat some blood. If Aust wasn’t coming to heal him, then he needed to get rid of the things between him and Aust. Looking for a weak spot in that elemental’s cracking form, he raised his weapons and prepared to strike. Then he saw it – a clear shot, a piece of rock that had fallen away, revealing the myrmidon’s elemental core. Honta knew how to strike at one of these as much as he knew how to drive a blade into a heart. Plunging his weapons directly into the core, the earth myrmidon roared out in anguish and defeat. Its limbs went limp, and its extremities began to crumble to dust. As Tanriel, Honta and Vatyrius watched, the myrmidon’s armor fell to the ground, as the elemental was reduced to a pile of sand and gravel. However, the energy from the creature then flowed upwards, swallowed up into Sindaria’s swirling energy cocoon. The trio frowned, and turned their focus to the others.
“Her shield is absorbing the energy from the elementals!” Tanriel cried out over the battle. Aust frowned heavily.
“So what do we do?! We can’t just sit here all day and let them beat on us! We have to stop her!” Willow looked between the two, and chimed in, hoping this would be a good distraction from her rogue fire elemental.
“We might just have to kill them, and know that we’re making her stronger, or giving her a better shield, or something! We should focus on killing the elementals as fast as we can, then looking at some way to get through her shield!” The group was in uneasy agreement at this, and turned their focus on the two remaining fire elemental creatures. Vatyrius, Honta, and Tanriel set their focus upon those fire elementals, with the two melee fighters closing in upon the fire myrmidon, and fire elemental, respectively. Vatyrius landed a hefty blow on the myrmidon’s armor, leaving another solid dent. It chose to ignore the Paladin, instead focusing on Carric. It lit its ebony blades ablaze, then struck down three times in rapid succession, cracking Carric’s form and chipping away at his body.
Carric, wreathed in flames and reeling from the myrmidon’s powerful strike, then lost his concentration upon his own earth elemental. Now every elemental had turned hostile to the group, and without a way of speaking common, Carric couldn’t even warn the rest of the party. With a little luck, however, that fire elemental who had engulfed him was blasted across the room, freeing him from its oppressive flames, leaving him gazing at the attack’s source; a fairly annoyed looking Tanriel. Beside her was Willow, who focused her energy into another witch bolt, arcing green lightning at the fire myrmidon. The blast ripped holes in its armor, revealing the fiery core within. It was near death now.
Those two other elementals weren’t about to let the party get away with enslaving them, however. Carric’s earth elemental turned around, just as Aust prepared to strike at the faltering myrmidon. Capitalizing on the Cleric’s distraction, the elemental drove its rocky fists into Aust’s armor. The cleric grunted with exertion, his blade swinging off to the side of the fire myrmidon. He was confused as all hell now.
“I don’t get it! Why is the earth elemental attacking us now?!” the anger and frustration in his voice was rising with every word, as he did his best to pull his shield up and defend himself from any further attacks. Carric couldn’t respond in words, so he did the next best thing – he turned on his own elemental, and tackled the creature, crushing it with his fists and cracking it heavily. It looked about ready to crumble, but so, too, did Carric. The signal was sent – the elementals were fair game to attack.
As Carric moved out of the way, Honta slipped into his place, and spotted that gap in the fire myrmidon’s armor. Much as he had vanquished the other, Honta sunk his blades into the core, twisting them and sending the creature reeling. In seconds, the armor crumbled away like dust in the wind. The flames of that elemental began to spiral upwards, spinning and stretching into the sky until they reached Sindaria’s shield. They, too, were absorbed. As the party turned to battle the two rogue elementals that remained, they were interrupted by a pulse of power from that same shield.
A flash of light filled the room, then a rumbling sound of thunder. They felt the oppressive sense of a growing magical power beating down upon them. While they shielded themselves from the light and struggled to maintain their positions, the party watched as those two remaining elementals were also sucked up to feed Sindaria’s power greed. Then, even Carric, in his Earth Elemental form, began to float upwards towards the surging Sorceress. With heavy regret, he shapeshifted back into his humanoid form, then dropped down to the ground with a grunt. Everyone turned their eyes skyward, as the shield began to pulse once more. Even Willow’s Fire Shield wasn’t safe from her reach. With all that power swallowed up, the coccoon pulsed several more times, before erupting with violent, turbulent magical energy.
The pulse of power shattered the ceiling and walls of the room they stood upon. Stone flew in every direction, as the glowing white form of Sindaria slowly floated down into the middle of the battlefield. The party struggled as the shockwave from Sindaria’s awakening battered at them with raw elemental force. Slowly, they all turned to face their final foe. The sky above, now revealed to them, was a deep, blood red colour. Dark clouds had rolled in, and thunder echoed all around them.
Sindaria stood before them, much the same woman they had seen before, but also, grotesquely different. She had grown an extra set of arms, and now each of her four arms seemed to glow with the power of one of the four elementals. One hand was constantly ablaze – another covered in ice. A third crackled with lightning, and a fourth appeared to be made of hard stone.
As the party recovered from the wake of the Sorceress’ transformation, Honta stumbled over towards Aust, his body broken and bleeding from the combat before. Battered by the elemental shockwave, he couldn’t hold on to conciousness much longer.
“Hey Aust? … Help.” He said, before collapsing at the Cleric’s feet. Aust sighed heavily and shook his head, quickly preparing to heal the fallen rogue.
“Serves you frickin’ right..” he growled downwards, as Sindaria cast her eyes upon the pair. Those eyes glowed different colours, as her veins pulsed with colourful magic, shifting between red, blue, yellow and brown. Finally, she seemed to awaken completely, and focus on that party.
“This is MY power. Nothing you can do will stop me now. You had your chance to surrender. Now, I cast aside the prophecy. I will destroy you all myself!” Without further warning, the Sorceress lunged at Tanriel. Reaching out with her lightning charged hand, she attempted to claw at the redhead, who reacted quickly, much to her own surprise. Lashing out at her, the Sorceress yelled in frustration at the Warlock.
“You could have made the perfect partner in my plan to remake this world, but now you have to die!” Tanriel dodged the first swipe, but Sindaria had become inhumanely fast. As Tanriel made a quip, Sindaria’s hand instantly recoiled and adjusted to Tanriel’s movements.
“I need no partners. Only servants and pawns.” Tanriel retorted, thinking herself victorious. Unfortunately, Sindaria was too fast, and her hand swiped at Tanriel viciously, shredding through her armor and sending surges of electricity through her body.
Tanriel screamed in agony, which instantly trigged Vatyrius’ protective instincts. He charged Sindaria as she was mid-swipe, striking at her from behind. With a silent prayer to his new dark master, the fallen Paladin’s maul began to glow with black flames. He slammed that maul into Sindaria’s head, not once, but twice, with the sort of force that would leave a normal man or woman nothing more than splattered brains and skull fragments on the ground.
But to his surprise, Sindaria barely moved. The impact reverberated back up the Maul, nearly forcing him to drop it. He felt as if he has struck solid stone. Sindaria only flinched the barest amount but recovered as if nothing had happened. As Vatyrius recovered, the Sorceress glowered at that party. She ignored the Paladin for the moment, instead raising her frozen hand towards Aust. Immediately, a blast of icy blue water surged in his direction, while his attention was upon Honta.
As the water crashed into his form, it surged upwards around his head, growing into a large globe of icy cold liquid. Aust had dealt with this before, when fighting the traitor Sauruki. Holding his breath, and fighting through the chill that permeated right to his bones, he forced himself from the cold water, causing it to fall to the ground with a splash, then roll away. Panting heavily, the Cleric stumbled over towards Honta, and quickly placed his hands upon him.
Aust’s hands glowed with holy energy, as he cast a powerful healing spell upon Honta. The Rogue immediately opened his eyes, gasping for air as life returned to his body. Aust glared down at him.
“I need you to get up, and go fucking stab her.” He growled. Honta nodded, and quickly moved to stand, as the energy mended up his broken ribs and sealed his wounds. Sindaria, however, was still terrorizing that party with her newfound power. Picking on Willow now, she raised a burning palm towards her.
“We could have done such great things together, Willowmere! Now, I must burn your flesh, and that brilliant mind of yours, into ash..” she said, almost regretfully. A bright, fiery red beam surged from her hands, and plunged into the Wizard’s chest. At first, she felt nothing, aside from a strange, burning sensation in the back of her mind.
“What.. is… AH!” a stray thought could be dangerous in the middle of battle, but with Sindaria’s newfound power, it was even moreso. While Willow was willful enough not to let that thought overtake her, the flames in the back of her mind grew with every second, before finally erupting over her flesh in a searing conflagration. The Gnome screamed out in pain as those flames surged across her, then vanished. Sindaria smirked, then turned her attention back to Tanriel, prepared to strike her once more.
“Ta-ta, my dove.” Tanriel was not about to become an Elven scratching post. Ripping open a small rift, she leapt through it, teleporting a short distance away, as Sindaria lunged for her. She smirked to herself, quickly adjusting her torn dress and armor, content that Vatyrius was now between her and Sindaria.
In rage, Sindaria looked for another fool to strike down. She set her eyes on Carric. She was just pissed now. Vatyrius would be the next target of her claws, but for now, she took out her anger on the Druid. Raising her earthen hand to him, she growled and yelled out angrily.
“YOU! I don’t even know who you are, but you probably deserve to die!” Her palm twisted upwards, then formed into a crushing fist. Similarly, a crushing fist of black elemental stone rose from the ground below Carric, grasping him and then squeezing, causing Carric to scream out in pain. Aust glanced over, then chuckled a bit at Sindaria’s rage-induced statement.
“Well, she’s not wrong..” he muttered to himself, as Willow raised her staff towards Sindaria, and yelled out her own battlecry.
“Be Disintegrated!” the Gnome’s voice boomed with arcane power, as a beam of powerful energy fired out of that staff and directly at Sindaria. The Sorceress was not about to die to such spells, however, and raised a palm, deflecting the beam off to the side with an unamused stare at the Gnome. Honta took this opportunity to lunge in with his blades, sinking them into Sindaria’s flank. As his blades drew back, he noticed that the Sorceress’ wounds didn’t seem to bleed at all. There was no blood on his weapons, and Sindaria didn’t even seem to wince when he attacked her.
“Uh… guys? This lady’s real freaky!” The rogue shouted out to the group. Aust rolled his eyes.
“No shit, Honta!” But Honta felt Aust didn’t understand just how messed up their target was.
“Seriously Aust… I like, stabbed her, and.. yeah… no! It’s weird!” he repeated, as Sindaria hissed and swiped at him with a claw. Aust repeated his eyeroll.
“Seriously, Honta? Just keep stabbing her!” In anger, Sindaria spun around and decided to turn her attention on the Paladin that struck her in the back of the skull. With a sneer, she raised her frozen claws and prepared to strike.
“You are Tanriel’s newest toy, are you not? You would have served ME far better…” she growled, as the claw rended through Vatyrius’ black Platemail, leaving a visible sum of frost upon it. The Paladin growled, shaking the pain off, and focused on what he would do next.
“I serve House Ebonwind, and no other.” He spat sharply and slid his hand down over the wound she’d left. Healing energies flowed through him, mending his flesh and stopping his bleeding. As he did this, Aust dove to the center of the room, and cast his own healing spell, creating a holy glow around that battlefield that enveloped each member of the party, mending their wounds and abating their pain.
Sindaria growled and swung back at Honta, firing a beam from her lightning hand at him. With no time to react, Honta took the brunt of that lightning right in his face, screaming out in pain as the Sorceress taunted him.
“You had your chance to join me, but now you will die with the rest of them, assassin!” she roared, as Honta’s body went rigid, completely paralyzed from the electricity that had surged through his body. He was stunned. The bolt flowed through him and arced towards Carric, who was still struggling to get out of the stone hand that was crushing him. He, too, took the full force of the lightning, going momentarily limp as the bolt sprung from his form towards Aust.
Aust, luckily, was neither right in front of Sindaria, nor was he trapped in a stone hand. He dodged that bolt to the side, taunting Sindaria in the process. Sindaria turned to screech at him, giving Tanriel the opening she needed.
Tanriel’s hands began to devour light itself, a dark, sickly pale colour forming over her palms. She smirked, and fired a beam of black energy at the Sorceress. Unable to react in time, the dark energy surged through Sindaria’s form and left her own skin looking desiccated and pale. Finally, she made a pained noise. Tanriel smirked in triumph.
“Wither and die, you self-important bitch.” The warlock sneered and dusted her nails off, the smirk never leaving her lips. Sindaria, however, was not impressed. She raised her flame-licked hand and fired a beam of her own in Tanriel’s direction.
“Shut up and burn, Tanriel.” She sneered, as Tanriel’s smirk twisted into a more panicked expression. That red beam crashed into her chest, but seemed to have no immediate effect. Then, the redhead began to panic, as mental flames burst from her body and began to ignite all over her. For a mere second, she feared for her life, distracted by those flames, until she composed herself, and found the willpower to dissipate those flames.
While Sindaria focused on Tanriel, Willow raised her palms and blasted her foe with arcane force. Using the impact as a distraction, Willow closed the distance between herself and the rest of the group, hoping to get closer to Vatyrius’ protective auras, and Aust’s healing magic. Annoyed, Sindaria quickly turned her attention to Willow and raised another stony fist to crush her. Willow expected a beam, and was completely unprepared for that hand to rise up beneath her and grasp her completely.
While feeling started to return to Honta’s extremities, both Willow and Carric were now trapped by giant stone fists. Aust looked to them nervously, and quickly muttered a blessing to the entire group, excluding Vatyrius.
“Pelor, if you’re out there, please bless my allies who are too slow-witted to save themselves from giant stony fists, lightning bolts to the face, and fires that burn only in their minds…” he grumbled into the chaos and thunder. Dim yellow sun-like energy shone upon his allies, as Aust cast his glances over to those who were trapped in the fists.
Carric waved him over, pushing at the fist with his own hands. “Don’t worry about me, I got this!” he assured Aust, who nodded, then ran over to Willow to help pry her free. Sindaria, content that half the party was firmly distracted, turned to Honta, who was finally regaining sensation through most of his body. Unfortunately, he had not recovered enough to dodge her attacks, and took the full brunt of a violent scratch from her frozen hand.
“I’ll rip you apart with my bare hands, assassin!” she cried, laughing darkly and proudly. Recovered from his previous injuries, Vatyrius brought his maul down on the back of her skull twice. A sickening cracking sound rang out, as the infernal flames that bathed the weapon burnt away at her hair and scalp. Sindaria growled in pain, as small cracks began to form across her face, like a porcelain doll tapped just a little too hard. Beneath the cracks, elemental energy pulsed and shone through. Then, she pushed back against the maul, as the party stared in amazement. She was still moving?! Aust capitalized on the moment with a battlecry.
“We will kill you yet, Sindaria!” he shouted at the top of his lungs, as he moved to try to pry those stone fingers from Willow’s form. Sindaria growled, her voice sounding more emotional, with a touch of insanity beneath it.
“You will NEVER stop me!” she roared, and aimed a flaming beam towards Aust. Like Willow, he managed to hold the flames at bay, preventing them from overtaking his mind, until they washed out and burned his flesh. Carric looked on, then refocused his efforts on trying to escape.
“At some point, I will get out of this fist! Then.. I will attack!” he declared, as Honta looked for an opening in Sindaria’s movements.
“Have you even hit her with anything yet, either of you?” he shot at Aust and Carric through the din of thunder and battle. Aust growled in annoyance as Carric shrugged beneath those fingers.
“Shut up, Honta!” the Cleric quipped back, eliciting a laugh from the assassin. Tanriel, having learned her lessons from Sindaria’s mindfire spell, ignored that conversation and slipped closer to Vatyrius, until she felt his protective aura wash over her.
“Much better. Thank you, my dove. Now children, are you going to spend your time bickering amongst eachother, or are you actually going to DO something? I can’t do ALL the work…” she drawled, raising her hands and firing another black beam at Sindaria. Once more, the Sorceress was struck, her body momentarily drained of energy and lifeforce as it began to wither. That Blight spell was potent, and Tanriel wielded it like a well-balanced weapon. As Sindaria recovered, more cracks formed all over her body, showing more of the elemental chaos beneath. Sindaria roared in rage, turning towards Tanriel and raising a stone hand underneath her.
“Red-haired harpy! I’ll crush you too!” she screeched, as the fist wrapped around Tanriel’s body and began to squeeze the life out of her, much like Willow and Carric. Aust watched the scene play out, idly pulling back on a stony finger that was supposed to be crushing Willow. However, when she walked out and appeared beside Aust, giving him a small wave, he blinked and looked down at the stone fist. It instantly crumbled to dust. He then turned his confused gaze towards Willow.
“Oh, that. I just crawled out while you weren’t looking. They’re really not that hard to escape from if you know what you’re doing. Haha!” she giggled merrily and prepared another spell to fling at Sindaria. Carric uttered a disappointed groan as he continued to struggle with his own fist, unable to break free. While Sindaria recovered, Honta flexed his fingers, then plunged his daggers into Sindaria’s chest, causing her to scream once more. When removed, the weapons left more puncture wounds that pulsed with energy, not blood and muscle. Small cracks formed around them as well. Honta was a touch unnerved, staring at her with uncertainty.
“You’re looking pretty weird there, lady!” he taunted, but Sindaria wouldn’t even speak to him anymore. She cast him a deadly glare, and batted him aside. Honta was just a nuisance. She had bigger threats to deal with, and Willow and Aust were right beside eachother now. She let loose with another bolt of lightning, which arced towards Willow, crashing into her body. The Gnome screamed in pain, but managed to shrug off the disorienting effects of the blast. Her body smoked from the heat, as the lighting bounced towards Aust. The Cleric having plenty of experience with lightning now, dodged the beam once more, and exhaled sharply. People were going to need healing soon.
Satisfied with having fired that beam off, Sindaria turned to Honta once more and swiped at him with her earthen claws. Vatyrius, however, acted more quickly, and deflected both blows from Honta’s form using his maul. Her rage grew, her eyes pulsed with anger, and a small crack formed near her mouth.
“You will not stop me, any of you! I will do anything for this power! This world will be mine!” She screamed at them, as her voice became far more unstable. Aust channeled another powerful group-healing spell, mending many of the wounds the party had received. As the spell faded, there was just a moment of calm in that fight. In the distance, the party could hear rain beginning to fall. The storm had arrived.
Sindaria was getting desperate. As Honta and Vatyrius lashed out with their weapons, she quickly looked towards Willow, and performed a complex phase shifting spell upon her. Sindaria left behind an image of herself in place, tricking Honta and Vatyrius momentarily into striking her. However, as the image faded, it revealed a bewildered Willow, as Sindaria appeared beside Aust with a growl. Quickly, the two men diverted their attacks from the Gnome, who squeaked in fear and shock.
Sindaria swiped at Aust with her claws, but Aust deflected the strikes and made his way over towards Carric. Someone had to get him out of that stone fist. Tanriel, feeling herself struggling against that fist, and nearly out of magical power, slips a Dawnbreak potion from her belt. Tipping it to her lips, she downed the golden liquid, instantly healing her and refilling her with power. Then, as the rest of the party stared in confusion at Sindaria’s quick teleportation, Tanriel did much the same, conjuring a dimension door beneath her, and reappearing a short distance away. The stone fist instantly crumbled to dust. Once more, it was just Carric who was trapped.
Sindaria spotted Tanriel as she reappeared, and in a fit of rage at having lost Aust, raised a hand and fired another bolt of lightning, this time at the Warlock. While Tanriel is unable to avoid the initial impact, she, like Willow, proves that she has more fortitude than Honta, and shrugs off the sense of paralysis the electricity brings. Her hair frizzed and her form charred, Tanriel growled in annoyance. The bolt then arced off towards Vatyrius, but missed off to the side. Finally, Willow smirked widely from between Honta and Vatyrius.
“Oh Sindariaaaaa..” she sang out, as her hands began to glow with flame. The Sorceress snapped her attention towards the Gnome with a deadly glare.
“You’re all alone now. That means… it’s time for my favorite… FIREBALL!” a streak of red flame shot from Willow’s fingertips, as Sindaria’s eyes went wide with surprise and fear. She tried to turn and teleport away, but was unable to react before that little bead of flame erupted into a violent conflagration. Screams of pain echoed out over the thunder, as the rain began to fall upon the party. As the flame subsided, Sindaria looked charred, burnt, and nearly ready to fall apart. Piece of her face had completely fallen away, revealing the pulsing energy beneath. She screamed out in pure rage and desperation.
“No! Nothing will stop me! If I can’t defeat you like this, then I need more power! If the elemental cult leaders couldn’t keep their portals open on their own, then I will have to show them how it’s done! I’ll siphon my power from the Elemental Princes myself!” she roared, as she began to float into the air once more. Another shield wrapped around her body, and as the party quickly discovered, they were unable to harm her.
Then, the worst happened. She reached out to the four corners of that tower, and, with a pulling apart motion, ripped holes in reality, forming portals to each of the four elemental planes. Immediately, their power washed over the party. Those rifts were violent and unstable, and looked ready to erupt with chaotic power at a moment’s notice. The party was in trouble, and braced for impact.
Parents had come for many of the younglings, leaving only those of thirteen lunar cycles or more to stay behind to hear the end of that tale. Khez’ran smiled at them all, as one of the fledgling hunters interrupted the story to ask a question.
“Stonespeaker, the situation seems so bleak! How could they possibly stand against the might of those portal-things? Surely they are like the warp?” Khez’ran nodded to the young man.
“You are correct. They were very much like the warp, or the great cataclysm that washed over our world. In fact, they were a part of it. But that didn’t happen for a little more time yet. No, our heroes had made a very powerful spellcaster an ally, and he was about to appear and assist them. His name was Arctaerus, and he would lessen the temper of the planes, and protect the party as they sought to vanquish the Sorceress.”
He glanced over towards the fire, motioning towards Sev’rak with a hand.
“Sev’rak, my dear… would you please strengthen our flame? Though it is late, I wish to finish the tale this eve. Our hunters set out to slaughter warped beasts that have encroached on our hunting grounds. I would have all of you understanding why we fight the beasts of the warp, and why magic is such a dangerous, violent thing.”
Those who remained all nodded in understanding. The Stonespeaker was wise, and his words carried weight. They would remain and listen, no matter how late it got, no matter how many times they had to refresh their flame.
With a smile, and their fire renewed, Khez’ran cleared his throat, took a drink of his water, brushed away the tingling feeling its latent warp left upon his tongue, and continued.
“Arctaerus appeared before the party, and began to summon shields of elemental power…”
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