The Necropolis: The Avatar of Myrkul

General Summary

[Epic Quest]
Sebastian, Riven, Eliana, and Hazel stood over the slain corpse of Chief Skane, the reanimated leader of the Frost Giant people. Having made quick work of him, they braced themselves for yet the next fight to come -- Helmskag had told them that it would be a nearly impossible challenge, and one that Helmskag themselves had failed at hundreds of times on their own, attempting to fulfill their oath.
As they stood before the large, wrought iron gates to Vulkara's throne room, a powerful blue aura surrounded the party, healing them of their wounds, and transforming Bill once again into his true form: a large, blue wooly mammoth, the chosen of Thrym himself. Helmskag reached down to Sebastian; both had agreed, together, to reclaim Uttir and purge it of Mykrul's influence, and they clasped their forearms together, reaffirming that vow.
Riven, wasting no time, cast thaumaturgy and burst through the doors. Combat started immediately, as the party came to face an army of undead skeletons, zombie frost giants, and the Lady Vulkara herself, the chosen of Myrkul. With Hazel casting a powerful wall of fire around the army and Sebastian, Helmskag, and Bill driving Vulkara hard into the ground, it seemed that the party may have an advantage... until they noticed the felled corpses they'd just slain reanimating again. Nonetheless, they turned to focus their attacks on Vulkara.
With blade after blade hitting their foe, she appeared to fall to them. But, mere seconds elapsed before Vulkara's body crumpled, ripped, and tore itself apart from the inside: a viscera-covered bone dragon emerged from Vuklara's corpse and flew off deeper into the caverns.
The party had little time to lick their wounds. Bill, even in his powerful mammoth form, was barely clinging to life. The rest of the party, seriously injured, used most of their spells to put themselves back together before pressing on.
As they crept through the caves to engage in the second theater of battle, this time they took the stealthy approach. Catching the dragon by surprise, they managed to launch a barrage of attacks against it before it could react. Sebastian, ever using his cunning, consistently commanded the dragon to submit to him; the dragon, ever prideful and persistent, refused and burned quickly through its legendary resistances.
With the heroes surrounding it, the dragon made a last ditch attempt at destroying its foes, breathing a petrifying breath at all heroes around it. Eliana, Riven, and Hazel were taken by the poisonous breath, as they felt their bodies become restrained and rigid, the petrification taking over. Sebastian, seeing his allies in danger, continued his mental torture of the evil beast... which eventually succombed to his will, crashing to the ground, incapacitated. Bill, in a rage, destroyed much of the dragon's body and bones, shattering them to pieces. The battle would have been won there, if not for the immortality of the undead. Vuklara's dragon form began to rise again.
Helmskag, in that moment, knew it was time to fulfill their oath. Dismounting from Bill, they carved the ancient giant runes both into themselves as well as the skull of the dragon. Dominated by Thrym's influence, the dragon exploded in shards of bone shrapnel.
They had won the day. Helmskag, the revenant's oath fulfilled, thanked Sebastian as he faded off into the aether to be with his deity. Hazel, thinking quickly, turned into a cloud of gas to dispel the effects of the petrification. Riven and Eliana, however, looked on helplessly as the dragon breath seized control of their bodies, transforming them into statues of stone and ice.
Bill, returning to his normal donkey form, trotted up to Eliana, nudging her motionless body. Sebastian, realizing the cost of their quest, felt tears streaming down his face despondently as he looked at Matthias' body buried under 30 feet of ice from where they'd left him in their time-warped vision. His hand moved across the ice, and fumbled Helmskag's greatsword. It felt light in his hands, and there was a power calling to him that he knew, inexplicably, to connect with. Summoning a divine intervention, Thrym himself appeared in corporeal form before Seabstian, offering him one godly favor in exchange for his service against Myrkul.
Sebastian had lived a life where he always knew how to say what he needed to in order to get what he wanted. But never before had he been so bold as to try and manipulate a God, and certainly not one to whom he'd sworn an oath. So, in this pivotal moment with Matthias' return hanging in the balance, Sebastian did all that he could think to do.
He spoke honestly. He manipulated nothing. He simply asked for the lives of his companions to be restored.
In a breath, Thrym was gone. And Eliana and Riven were back, battered, but living and breathing as they needed to be. As they should be. And Matthias remained, buried under the ice.
It took a while, even with magic, to excavate Matthias's body. Bill, speaking to Eliana, guided the party to Thrym's altar, encouraging the group to make a sacrifice.... anything at all to allow Thrym to give just one more gift, to get the boon that they came for. Bill even offered his own life for the exchange.
Sebastian, and Matthias, together as one, placed Matthias' fallen body on Thrym's altar. And both souls, without a doubt in their minds, asked for their reward.
In response, Matthias' soul separated from Sebastian Starvale, but rather than return to his body, left this plane forever.
After his centuries of abuse and fragmented identity, Matthias wakes to find himself stumbling out of a familiar fairy ring, onto a farm covered with snow. Inside of the farm house, he finds a magical fire warming the hearth, and though he cannot explain it, he can feel the protection of both Thrym and The Child over him. He knows not where he is now, but it feels right and it feels like home. And that, is a place where he can truly rest.
Sebastian gets another chance at his life. He too returns home; it's a long journey back to Falinor. His mother, Agnes runs up to him with excitement and open arms, asking him for all of the details of his latest diplomatic adventures. As Sebastian slowly raises a spoon full of his mother's soup to his lips, he thinks about all of the decisions that got him to this point... and feels the chilly glow of the icy greatsword still affixed to his back.
Songs of Glory: Sebastian +10, Riven, Hazel, Eliana +6

Report Date

07 Jan 2025