The Final Battle

As a massive green vortex begins to descend over the city of El-Qima, the party approach to find numerous bodies of Amber Watch and Graveguard soldiers outside the city walls. Among them they find a survivor, a sergeant Topaz Garwind of the Amber Watch, who Elria heals back to fighting ability just as the gates of the city open and a number of gnolls and cultists pour out to attack them. The party fights them ferociously, with Grom and Ra'zon scaling the walls to dispatch cultists manning ballistas before turning those ballistas back on the enemy.
After the initial wave was stopped, the party sees the city teeming with gnolls; Topaz said that most of the followers killed themselves in ritual sacrifice to become more "pure" servants of the god of death. The party can see the green light above coalescing above the massive temple in the center of the city. At breakneck speed they fight their way through the city, calling upon their powers and abilities to clear a path but all the while having more and more undead foes join them in pursuit.
They arrive in the central plaza of the city but are cut off by a horde of gnolls blocking the way, and hundreds more joining to form a circle around them. Just before the horde charges and overwhelms them a massive beam of light surrounds the party and Serik Thadan appears, casting a powerful protective spell to hold off the horde and clearing a path into the temple. He bids them to go and put a stop to this while he, joined by Khairiya, hold off the horde until the army can arrive.
The party enters the temple and find Rashida Rumiyyad in the middle of her ritual. They do battle with her and Anton is able to put her down with a bullet to the chest. As her mortal form dies the temple begins to rise in the air and Rashida's body begins to transform, her death being the last element needed to complete the ritual. She begins transforming, sprouting an extra pair of arms and growing wings, her teeth elongating into pointed tusks and horns growing from her head and knees as she becomes an avatar of the Many-Armed Devourer.
The battle with her continues, with Topaz and Ari nearly dying but saved from their fate by Elria. As the temple rises, chunks of the floor begin to fall away. Ra'zon, Anton, and Grom all have the floor fall out from under them, but Grom uses his new wings to catch Anton while Ra'zon is able to save himself using his grappling crossbow. Eventually, it is Jameson who is able to dispatch the transformed Rashida by grappling her and jumping out of the temple, plummeting sixty feet and dashing her against the stones below.
With Rashida dispatched, her army begins to scatter as they are no longer under her control. Soon the Rumiyyad army arrives and is able to eradicate the majority of the gnolls and cultists, with the survivors fleeing into the cursed sands of the Mushtarak desert.
In the ensuing weeks, the party are named Protectors of the Rumiyyad Autarchy and granted a plot of land within El-Azahdron containing a small keep. Elria sticks around to help heal the wounded before officially retiring from adventuring. Anton returns to Crimsonhold, taking Ari with him and naming her captain of the Darrington. Grom and Jameson are transported back to Meicor by Serik, where they set about taking over and restoring the Wizard's Tower Brewery. They eventually convert the keep in El-Azahdron into a tavern called Bobo's Bar that serves Wizard's Tower products, utilizing the teleportation circle in the brewery basement to transport goods. Ra'zon remains in El-Azahdron with the intention of fulfilling the quest given to him by Admiral Graves to recover the Iron Hand of Petros. He begins looking for new traveling companions to journey with him, while running Bobo's Bar in the interim with Big Tom & Skinny Pete are brought on as security along with Topaz.
The people of the Pauper's Tract, having heard of Serik's assistance in El-Qima, grow less wary of the wizard and soon the area is reinvigorated. Khairiya is promoted to General of the Amber Watch, and she and Serik begin a romantic relationship. Kyrian Rumiyyad realizes his complete inadequacy to lead and cedes control of the Autarchy to the Enlightened Chancery mere days after his coronation, but not before permanently exempting Crimsonhold from any tributes past or future.

Chapter Thirty-One

"The Final Battle"

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Previous Chapter: The Screaming Pass

Next Chapter: It's Us

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Ingame Date: 2^nd of Summerdawn, 1855
Real-Life Date: December 31, 2021
Protagonists:

• Grom
• Ari
• Jameson Harper
• Ra'zon
• Anton von Rheintach
• Topaz Garwind

Featured NPCs:

• Rashida Rumiyyad
• Khairiya Meral
• Serik Thadan

Locations:

• El-Qima
• El-Azahdron