Session 36: Memento Mori

General Summary

Alaric's Last Stand

31st of Wintercrest 22nd year of the Second Era
Stepping through the arch they found themselves in a short narrow hallway carved into natural rock, ending with an identical arch. Through the second arch they found themselves in a small cave with manmade stone tile floor. The natural cavern entrance appeared to have been enclosed by stone blocks that had caved in over time. The light coming from outside revealed the shadow silhouette of 6 pillars and a hexagonal raised platform of dark stone; at the center of which was a familiar looking pedestal.
Meara remotely ignited the three braziers surrounding the platform, and Malcolm bowled a heavy rock across the tiles to help determine if there were any traps between them and the pedestal. Deciding it was relatively safe, the party proceeded to the platform. However, when they reached the pedestal, they found only the outline of the tablet in the dust. A moment later, Alaric appeared out of the shadows behind them, his armor adorned with a human skull and rib and spine pones stitched into the leather. Malcolm was immediately suspicious that Alaric had something to do with the missing tablet.
Alaric went into the story of everything that had happened since he parted with them in Bunorley. He explained that he first followed Lilith Smios to Hame, and when he found the city overrun with undead, he left and wrote them the letter warning them to stay away while he waited for Lilith to move again. Every time he followed her, she had left a town or city in crises behind. After all of his time with the The Regulators he felt obligated to help. By the time he cleaned up her mess, she was always long gone.
He took further boons from Orcus, including the ability to know Lilith's location at all times, but still she managed to stay one step ahead of him and left a crises for him to slow him down. Finally he decided to stop taking the bait and caught up with her. They fought each other across the world, shadow stepping across the continents, following the dark side of the world for hours hours and exchanging blows. Finally he defeated her and asked her why she had killed his wife. She told him that it was her task to earn the boon of Orcus, just as when he killed Alexandra Nordheim.
She then laughed, and told him now that he had gotten what he wanted, Orcus owned him. Alaric killed her, but soon found that he still felt empty. After a time of aimless wandering, Orcus came to him in a dream again. He told Alaric that he knew what he really wanted, more than revenge against Lilith, and promised that he would bring his wife back from the dead. The price for this new deal was that Alaric retrieve the tablet and kill the other heirs. Alaric tried to retrieve the tablet and leave, but Orcus wouldn't let him leave the vault without completing the other half of the deal.
Malcolm tried to appeal to Alaric's better nature, "I know you love your wife, but you can't trust Orcus." Alaric pointed at the skull on his shoulder, "He already kept his original deal, and I've seen that he can bring people back from the dead. Not only as undead, but true resurrection as well." Malcolm replied, "I know you have an emptiness, and a loneliness , but you don't have to be alone. You have people who care about you. You have us. You don't have to do this." Alaric looked sad, and replied, "I know you mean what you say. And I'm not going to lie, There's only one way I truly want this to go. But I must do what I have to do." He then raised his crossbow at his former friends and allies. During this conversation, Meara noticed that Alaric's shadows were multiplying and spreading across the floor of the vault. The shadows rose from the floor like a black fog and in many places the fog was swirling up and taking on a vaguely humanoid form.
Realizing he wasn't getting through to Alaric, Malcolm took the first shots, followed by Zuko and Meara. By the time Meara hit Alaric with her sword twice, it seemed as if they had already felled him, but the shadow demons that were forming around him reached full shape, and Alaric absorbed two of them to heal. He seemed almost satisfied that Meara was the first to land both of her hits. He then hit Meara with an Eldritch blast and used the shadow demons to jump from his current location to the platform where Zuko and Malcolm stood. The party began dispatching the shadow demons leaving Alaric less places to jump to, but he returned to the entrance side of the room before Zuko landed the final blow with an arrow straight to the mark of Orcus.

The Reaper

As Alaric fell, Meara rushed to his side. "We didn't want to do this," she said. Alaric nodded at her. "I know. But I didn't give you any choice. I hope you understand why I did what I had to do." The mark of Orcus glowed through his armor and his eyes began to take on the deep red glow they saw in the revenants in Elta. Malcom and Zuko joined her, as Malcolm pulled the "token of the clean soul and shoved it into Alaric's palm. Alaric looked at it confused until Meara explained that it clears his soul of his debt to Orcus. "Does this mean...I can join her," He asked. Malcolm confirmed and Alaric replied, "It's more than I deserve. But, thank you."
"I wish we could have you here longer," Malcolm said, "But you've been chasing after her for along time. I don't mean Lilith, I mean your wife. You've been chasing after her ever since we met you. And I think it's time you go to her." Alaric nodded again. "Well two more favors to ask of you. "One, kill them all. Two, if you could speed this up any..."
Malcolm slowly lifted Alaric's head and placed one of his pistols below his chin. He said, "Goodbye, old friend," and pulled the trigger. Malcolm grief strikingly clenched Alaric's body before gently laying him down. As they stood over his body trying to process what had happened, the sound of flapping wings could be heard from behind them. A large raven flew in from the mountains outside the cavern entrance and landed on Alaric's chest, then plucked the coin from Alaric's hand. From Malcolm's perspective, it was not a raven, but a humanoid woman with jet black hair and wings. She took the coin and it vanished in her hand. Then she reached down to Alaric and his spirit rose from his body. After briefly acknowledging Malcolm, the woman took flight, and Alaric with her. They flew out of the cavern, into the skies above the mountain and disappeared from sight. Malcolm thought to himself out loud, "I am death."

And then there were three (reprise)

Though the rest of the party only saw a raven land on Alaric and leave, they all felt the presence of Alaric's soul leave the room. After pulling the last tablet out of his bag, they placed his body in the wizard's door with the plan to give him a proper burial somewhere else. They dug into what valuables they could find in the back of the vault that wasn't to deeply buried under rubble and ice, then returned to the hall where they had left Ardun Aaryanfar and Wulffric. Ardun expressed concern about how long it had taken, and they explained that Alaric had been convinced by Orcus to take the last tablet and kill them, so they had to dispatch with him to get it back. Ardun apologized for their loss, but said he unfortunately found something that may add onto their despair. He brought them to where he had been digging some rubble, and there in the center of a circular burn pattern was the charred body of a Qutaran female in purple robes. They quickly realized it was the remains of Octavia. Ardun delicately offered to use a unique spell he knew to reveal her last moments in case there was anything that could be learned. The party agreed, and they witnessed the events leading to her death.
Octavia entered the hall in shackles, led by a group of robed and hooded figures. She was brought to the arch, and she asked where they had brought her. The hooded figure next to her responded with the familiar voice of Jesper Forsyth , "Freedom. I've brought you to freedom." Octavia lifted her shackled hads and said that though it was an improvement over the room they had her in in a nearby Kartonok city, it still didn't feel like freedom. A quick spell from Jesper released her shackles, and he explained that he had been scrying on her in Elta, and knew that she wanted nothing to do with the destiny the gods had planned out for her. If she retrieved the tablet for him, her obligation would be over.
For a moment it seemed like she was considering it, but she looked at Jesper and said something told her the tablet in his hands would be much worse than her alleged destiny. Another of the hooded figured approached Jesper, and they heard the voice of the cultist that attacked them in Twin Locks say, "I told you this wouldn't work."
In this vision it appeared that he was among the living and his vocal cords ere undamaged by a slit throat. That quickly changed as Jesper, as if dancing, gracefully slit the mans throat and said in a sing song voice "Not helping." He then turned to Octavia and told her that if she wouldn't take his kind offer as is, he could instead imprison her and make her watch him kill her friends first. If she retrieves the tablet for him, he'll leave them alone. This time she was even closer to stepping in, but instead backflipped toward the wall and got in a fighting stance. Jesper told her she was only delaying the inevitable. He would kill all four of them and use the next four heirs to retrieve the tablet, as they have no knowledge of who he is or what the tablets are. Octavia said if slowing him down is all that she contributes, she can live with that. Jesper then killed her with a fireball spell. The slain cultist rose as undead and mocked Jesper for his failure to little effect and Jesper assured him that Orcus would have a new plan in short order. The group then proceeded back down the hall and teleported away in a sphere of rushing fire.
Ardun said he admired how, even without what they knew now about the tablet, she chose to die fighting. Malcolm thanked Ardun for showing them, stating they knew that she was likely dead a long time ago, but now they knew how. Ardun asked if he could see the tablet and Malcolm opened his bag. Ardun reached through the opening confirming that he was at least not a fey as he could get past the ward sigils on the bag. He touched the tablet in almost disbelief that his quest was nearly over. He led them through his wizard's door and they found themselves in a mostly collapsed house about 15 minutes walk north of Palhas City. Ardun asked what they would be doing now that Mantus was no longer a threat. Malcolm said they would likely be going after the remnants of the cult itself and Orcus.
Ardun admitted Orcus would likely continue his own agenda with no hope of Mantus returning, but didn't understand why The Regulators would continue taking these responsibilities now that their obligation was over. "If we don't do it, who will," Malcolm replied. He then asked Ardun if there was any more information he could reveal about the heirs. Ardun made sure the others were occupied or out of earshot and told Malcolm he believed the heir of death carried an extra burden. It appears that Klizmir the Undying became ageless and could only be killed in battle. His last born son was killed when Klizmir insisted on a fight to the death but was still not slain.
Malcolm handed Ardun the tablet and a piece of the Scroll of Message before he turned to open the door to the archives of The Serapis. Before he was able to activate the door, a voice called out to him from the woods nearby. Darya Mountwala came running out of the woods. Malcolm was suspicious of this, and Ardun had just told him that he lost her in Hame and she was presumed dead. She rushed to embrace Ardun, and a moment later he collapsed with a knife in his back. Darya shed her skin revealing it to be Jesper. He greeted them teasingly and Malcolm threatened him in response. Multiple portals opened around them revealing multiple cultists and a large blue demon.
Jesper snatched the tablet piece easily, but when he went after the keys, Ardun fought for them as hard as he could. He looked at Zuko and Malcolm silently communicating his intent as a small bright orb appeared in his hand.
To be Continued....

Report Date

27 Sep 2020