Session 92: Falling, With Style

General Summary

At the hidden mountain lake known as the Mirrormere, Gemris awoke from her vision and drew her shield from the water. Transformed by the power of the lake, the shield was now the Starglass Aegis, made of seemingly unbreakable crystal. Her swarm of spirits were attracted to the shield, several alighting upon it like moths before dissolving into the crystal itself, lighting up motes of starlight that she was able to move around at will. The other Wildcards questioned her about her experience, and she related to them her vision of the Circle of Omens and their acceptance of her into the druidic ranks.
Skulk dived deep beneath the waters of the lake to see whether it held any secrets. There was no sign of the power that had transformed Gemris' shield, but Galindann was able to sense the presence of powerful divine magic, and Skulk was reminded of stories he had heard of places where the magic of the leylines were "grounded" before passing into the Shadowfell. This was perhaps such a place.
The Wildcards reassembled and Calarel, their night elf guide, assisted them to mount their giant duskwings again before setting off. The next five days passed uneventfully, as they traveled through the night, guided by the stars. Mountain ranges gave way to vast forests and grasslands and as they covered the miles, began to give way to mountain foothills once more. On the beginning of the fifth night, as they made their preparations to disembark once more, Calarel asked Sofia to join them all in telepathic communion. Morthak and Gemris, still somewhat mistrustful of Sofia, declined, but Calarel spoke to the rest of the Wildcards, warning them about dangers ahead. The mountain ranges to the east were reputed to be the resting place of an ancient primordial titan, a prince of wind and air. Navigating them was known to be fraught with danger. Sofia offered to commune with her patron in order to discern whether there might be any way to gain an advantage for the journey ahead. Managing to suppress the worst of the occult influence, Sofia communed with the voices, and asked the following. The answers were delivered to her in a sort of conceptual white space, as millions of voices whispered millions of conversations in her ear and her mind picked out the words that were not being said.
"What manner of primordial are we facing?" The voices began to merge into a howling, rushing wind. "Is it likely to bar our travels?" A million voices falling over themselves, but the only word Sofia could not hear gave her the answer = Yes. "What can we do to prepare for it?" This time the answer was less clear. Anticipate was the response she gleaned, backed by the rolling sound of thunder. "Could we bargain for passage?" This time the answer was a clear no. Sofia's final question was for her, and her alone: "What can I do to make things up to Phaes?" And the answer, she kept to herself.
With her spell complete and a tiny dribble of ichor rolling from one eye, Sofia turned to her daily preparations. Wanting to be prepared for anything while flying, she created a tiny illusion for the purposes of expending her stored Dispel Magic from her Ring of Spell Storing to store a different spell. As she did so, the flare of magic highlighted something she had not seen before - some sort of magical aura, designed to be obfuscated, on Phaes' person. Panicking, at the last moment she turned the power of the spell onto Phaes, who backed away, alarmed. With the magical aura dispelled, Sofia could see something she had not seen before - the ring Phaes so often worried when she was nervous, was magical in nature, something that had previously been masked.
While Gemris watched Sofia cautiously for signs she might lose control again, Sofia apologised to Phaes and suggested identiying the ring. Phaes initially resisted, concerned that there were more pressing matters to attend, but when Galindann of all people stepped in to suggest that Sofia was right, she acquiesced, sitting cross-legged and offering her hand to Sofia to complete the ritual. Sofia pulled out the puzzle codex, carefully feeling the ring and manipulating the dials, until finally it fell open, a small scrap of parchment contained within. Drawing it forth, she read it, before telling Phaes that the ring she wore was designed to protect the mind from outside influences - and that it appeared to contain some sort of entity within. Phaes shook her head, confused - it was just a gift from someone, a long time ago.
With the true provenance of the ring still something of a mystery, the Wildcards assembled and once more took to the sky on almost-silent duskwing wings. Occasional smatterings of rain began to assail them as they flew closer to the mountain ranges to the east. Suddenly, Galindann was pelted by a rock, floating through the air, and Calarel dove the duskwings down to avoid another. Surrounding them in the gloom of night were a field of floating rocks and boulders, held aloft by vortexes of powerful wind. As they navigated desperately through the rocks, Skulk drew his duskwing forward to accompany Calarel, using his blessings of the night to spot the rocks and help guide the party through them. Sofia, using a combination of her goggles of object reading and her monocle, was able to discern the faint flows of elemental magic driving the rocks and use that observation to anticipate their movements, better guiding the duskwings. Galindann narrowly avoided striking one of the rocks, reaching out one strong arm to thrust it away as his duskwing flapped frantically to avoid the collision. Gemris prayed, calling upon the power of the gods to grant the duskwings enough pace to fly through the rock field unharmed. As they approached a particularly dangerous snarl of rocks, it looked as if Sofia and Phaes might collide with them. Phaes stood up on her duskwing, reached out towards one of the rocks and closed her fist, whipping it to the side, psionic power driving the rock down and creating just enough of an opening for herself and Sofia to dart through. Morthak was not so lucky, however, cursing the gods as Yothtook took a glancing blow on one of the floating edifices, before righting themself to continue the flight.
As the first glow of false dawn limned the horizon, Skulk felt his yrnwood dagger beginning to vibrate in its sheath. As he announced the presence of enemies to the rest of the group, Calarel moved to the flank as Yothtook and Morthak gained altitude before diving down to attack an unseen enemy behind a massive floating boulder in the middle of the battlefield. Charging it with Godgorger she began attacking an air elemental sheathed in orbiting, oscillating rocks, swinging a massive boulder as a flail.
^{[DM Note: I rolled two crits for Morthak's first two attacks, and also forgot she was a Paladin now and could have smited on both for a ridiculous amount of damage. SMH}
The others were beset by air elementals from the flanks. Sofia once more called upon otherwordly powers to summon an aberrant spirit to their defence, but this time could not avoid the effects of the far realm, her body locking up and paralyzing as the spell concluded. Phaes slapped her to bring her back around, before standing and leaping from the duskwing, soaring aloft held by psionic energies to land atop one of the rocks and nock an arrow to her bow, firing upon the elementals. Skulk guided his own and Gemris' duskmoth closer to the fray to support Morthak, who was suddenly thrown backwards by a powerful blow from the rock flail, and then assailed by lightning. Skulk threw his dagger at the elemental myrmidon, wounding it, before another of the air elementals arose around him, enveloping both himself and Galindann within a stinging, buffeting cloud of wind and stones. They managed to keep their grip on the duskwing but the duskwing itself was badly injured by rocks and was thrown clear of the elemental force.
Seeing an opening, Galindann stood and used his fey step to appear above the Myrmidon, planning on grabbing hold of the creature to stay aloft and beating it to death. But the stones simply tumbled and rolled out of his reach, and he began to fall, until Calarel swooped in from the west to catch him.
^{[DM note: that should have been an easy grapple but I managed to roll two natural ones in a row for Galindann on both grapple attempts. FML}
Seeing one of the duskwings faltering and knowing that to fall would mean certain doom for all of them, Gemris guided her moth in close and with a prayer, cured its wounds. To the west, Sofia and Phaes found themselves toe to toe with another of the elementals. Phaes slashed at it with her blade before using another psionic leap to reposition - before the elemental, seeing an opening, enveloped Sofia, her duskwing and her aberrant spirit and bludgeoned them all with a whirlwind of stones and grit. Remarkably, Sofia manage to keep her grip on the duskwing and maintained her composure, but the duskwing was mortally wounded, and began to tumble and fall. Sofia brandished her ring of Spell Storing, using telekinesis to lower herself and the stricken duskwing to one of the boulders.
Calarel, with Galindann prone on the duskwing's back, began to rise up to meet the elemental monster. He slashed with a dark blade once, twice, each time seeming to tear lightning energy from its quasi-corporeal form. Rolling over, gasping and wheezing from his fall, Galindann pointed his sword at the elemental. He spoke an incantation in elven before commanding: "Retreat!". The elemental halted its advance, and while it was distracted, Skulk threw his dagger at the Myrmidon again, and this time it connected with one of the stones orbiting within the heart of the creature, shattering the stone and killing it.
Skulk and Morthak both rushed towards the last elemental as it began drifting toward Sofia and the stricken duskwing, Morthak piercing it from below with Godgorger, before Skulk slammed into it from above with Zitonai's Tongue, shattering its form. Skulk and Gemris both alighted on the rock that Sofia had taken shelter upon, both calling upon their respective deities - the Wanderer, for Gemris, and the Raven Queen, for Skulk - to heal this noble creature of the night.
The immediate danger passed, the group were eager to continue on to find a place of safety to rest for the day. But as they found such a place - a sheltered mountain ridge - Skulk's keen eyes spotted one, then two, then three figures slowly climbing down the cliff below them. Scaled, humanoid creatures, with stunted, misshapen wings at their shoulders.
Draconians.

Notable Quotes

Gemris: "How long was I gone?"

Skulk: Glancing at Sofia "Four hours!"

Sofia: Glancing at Skulk "Four days!"


Gemris: "Was she like this before she," throat slicing gesture "... the old man?"

Showcase

^Mirrormere

^{The floating rocks}

Rewards Granted

• The Starglass Aegis

Character(s) interacted with

• Cyr Calarel Blach

Notes

1. Greater Duskwings - Common Duskwing / Duskwing Prince
2. Air Elemental Myrmidon
3. Air Elemental

Session Commenced:
The 21st day of Cyr, 1622 TER
(Day 574 of the campaign)
Session Concluded:
The 31st day of Cyr, 1622 TER
(Day 584 of the campaign)

34 days since Departing Tor Sionis.

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Terrenos

Open full size

Report Date

25 Jan 2023

Primary Location

Feyr Caverill

Secondary Location

Mirrormere

Related Characters

• Galinndan
• Gemris
• Morthak Hornbearer
• Phaes
• Skulk
• Sofia Morozov