Session 28: The Melody's End

General Summary

Aaura watched as time slowed. The sound of the elevator grew faint and hollow. Her companions moved as through water. From behind Keokan's massive frame the Melody stepped into view.   “Persistent, aren’t you?” he shook his head with a condescending smile, “I can’t stress enough… you need to leave. We still have work to do and you don’t understand what’s at stake.” And then more plainly, “If you don’t turn around, Faelyn will die. I promise you. Perhaps he won’t be the only one. You need to turn away.”   “What’s at stake?” asked Aaura. “What are you trying to do?”   “That’s not really any of your business,” the Melody replied, “But I tell you what. Take his place. You are so beautiful. Join us, and I will show you everything that is to come.”   “You’d let him go if I come with you?”   “You have my word.”   "You're a liar."   “Sometimes. But not about this. Think it over.”   The Melody stepped behind Keokan once more and time snapped back to its normal pace. The elevator resumed its descent and Aaura felt her companions’ eyes on her.   “The Melody is here. He says we have to turn back or he’ll kill Faelyn.”   The elevator rumbled to a stop and the iron doors opened once more. At the end of the hallway behind a heavy barred door they saw Faelyn waiting for them.   A tense conversation ensued, where Faelyn repeatedly asked his friends to leave. He would join them later, he promised, when he helped finish what the Melody and Decroux were planning down here.   “And what is that exactly?”   “I’m not sure, but I’m excited to find out.”   Out of reach behind the bars and unwilling to compromise, Faelyn begged his friends to turn back. Finding themselves at an impasse, things took a turn when Keokan unslung his bow from his shoulder. Faelyn responded by attempting to cast a fireball, which Aaura counterspelled with a flick of her wrist. Keokan loosed his arrow, hitting Faelyn squarely in the shoulder. As pain shot through his body, Faelyn’s mind suddenly cleared.   “I’m so sorry,” Faelyn gasped. “He had total control. I was his puppet.”   Shadow quickly picked the lock on the gate and the Shore’s Light reunited. Keokan patched up Faelyn’s wound. They crept past another door and down a hallway ending in a pair of double doors. Being unsure whether the Melody knew if Faelyn was in control of himself, the Shore’s Light decided on a risky gambit. Faelyn would approach first, to stall their enemies while the rest of the Shore’s Light would attempt to subtly move in behind and gain position.   As is often the case, Heroes plan, and the Gods laugh.   From a dais at the far end of the room Father Decroux welcomed Faelyn and beckoned him closer, past a group of waiting henchmen. Soft notes filled the air from The Melody, who stood just behind Decroux in front of a large mirror.   As Decroux spoke, Shadow stood just outside the room, gently stopping the double doors from closing behind Faelyn. The air become tense as Faelyn approached the dais. With a somber nod of his head Decrox spoke, “Did you think the Melody would not know that we had lost you? I’m sorry, but your story has come to an end.”   The room erupted in violence and Faelyn found himself, once again, dead center. Aatavi burst through the double doors in a storm of rage, spearing one of the henchmen as it changed into a wererat. In response to this, Father Decroux lifted a hand and focused on the barbarian. With divine energy he twisted the Weave of magic and Aatavi’s frame responded: changing, shrinking, morphing. Where once the mighty Mysati barbarian stood, only a blue shelled turtle remained. The Melody played a few notes before his form expanded into three mirror image duplicates. Shadow slunk behind cover and loosed silver tipped bolts from her crossbow. Aaura threw bolts of magic energy at foes in every corner of the room. Adockus fired spears of ice and scorching rays to harry their enemies. Keokan dashed into the room, death dancing on the wind, moon sickle and wakizashi whirling.   Newly transformed, two of the wererats slashed and pummeled Faelyn, lifting his small frame off the floor and tearing into his flesh with blade and teeth. Ravaged as he was, Faelyn focused on the power within and let loose a terrible wave of acidic dragon’s breath. The acid stripped flesh from bone and sent the wererats reeling.   Keokan stepped up to Father Decroux on the dais and rained down blows upon him. As he cut into the priest, Decroux’s form began to change, his eyes flashed yellow, and he became a wererat. “You’!l ruin everything” he screamed, “the lives we’ll save!”   Decroux gritted his teeth at a final slash of Keokan’s wakizashi, his concentration broke, and all watched as Aatavi quickly transformed back into human form.   The fight raged on.   Back on two feet, Aatavi’s javelin ran through a wererat henchman again and again. Shadow healed her companions from a distance even as her crossbow bolts brought their enemies down. Aaura used necromantic magic to wither their opponents and bolster her allies before unfurling her wings and taking to the air. The Melody fired a bolt of sickening energy that poisoned Faelyn.   Frustrated at having lost his concentration, Decroux responded with a horrid blow on Keokan, an agonizing touch that siphoned the goliath's life energy and nearly brought him to his knees. Seeing an opening the priest infused his hand with dark magic and reached out for Keokan a second time. His fingers, glowing with unholy energy stopped mere inches from Keokan as Aaura conjured a magic shield to deflect the blow.   Seizing the moment, Keokan struck quickly, working with sword and sickle until Decroux staggered backwards on the dais. The priest held up his hands once more to reach out for Keokan when Faelyn loosed another wave of acid, washing the flesh from the priest’s skull and sending him to oblivion.   Only the Melody remained.   Seeing the tide of the battle had turned, the Melody placed his hand on the large mirror affixed to the wall behind the dais. With a flash he disappeared from the room and appeared inside the mirror, walking down a long hallway away from the battle. The Shore’s Light stood motionless for a moment watching their foe escaping. Not only did he seem out of reach, but his form had changed as well. The minstrel’s hood was thrown back revealing a head of golden hair and face of unearthly beauty. From his back grew to large wings, demon black and leathery. They now saw the true form of The Melody, an incubus from the Hells.   Keokan strode up to the mirror and smashed the butt end of his sickle against its surface, shattering it and revealing a passage beyond. Snapped from their reverie, Aatavi, Shadow, and Adockus moved through this hidden passage and into a smaller, luxuriously appointed chamber. A number of large mirrors hung around the room, and the Melody could be seen in one of them, smiling.   Within the space beyond, The Melody reached out to each, attempting to beguile them with enchantments. Unfortunately for the fiend, everyone was able to shut their mind from his charms. His smile faded as his confidence melted into fear.   Aatavi, Shadow, and Adockus, each started to attack the mirrors in the room, shattering one after another. As the last mirror in the antechamber was broken the Melody escaped through a final mirror, standing near the entrance to the previous room.   Unfortunately for him Keokan had noticed the mirror a few moments earlier and had taken position, waiting for any sign that the fiend might try and make their escape. When the Melody suddenly appeared, Keokan brought the sickle down once again as Aatavi dashed back to cover the door and cut off all escape.   Caught between the two mightiest members of the Shore’s Light, the Melody was speared, sliced, and finally brought low as Keokan cut the wings from his back and buried his sickle into the fiend’s heart.   As the Melody breathed his last, his skin blackened and began to peel away from his body, fire consuming his corpse from within. As his form disintegrated, he opened his mouth and in garbled infernal (for he had no tongue) choked out his last words, “Master, I am coming home….”   When the hellfire was done consuming him only a blackened stain remained on the stone floor, and a wisp of sulphur and brimstone hung in the air.   Collecting themselves, the heroes set about searching the rooms for clues to Decroux and The Melody’s plans and to look over the spoils of battle. Aaura’s eyes flashed as she looked over a number of treasures that carried an arcane glow: a pair of potions, a warhammer, a horn, a ring, and a book bound in red leather with an iron clasp.   Placing the book and other treasures in their bag of holding, the party started back towards Shanty’s Market. Keokan hefted Decroux’s body over his back while Aatavi grabbed the Melody’s vicious looking dagger; proof that they had accomplished the Shantyman’s task.