Session 44 - Always for Her

Teagan is pretty happy with his position between 2 wolves. Aiaoue begins with her favorite combo: Conjure Woodlands Beings and going bird. She flies immediately into the fray. The Warden's jaw falls open as he releases a distorted, maddening moonlit melody. Everyone, however, is able to resist its influence. The Warden steps upon the Silvr Path, reappearing on one of the upper balconies. The silver strands then flicker, moving Teagan away from the fray, Yenush into the fray, and Arkyn directly in front of the Warden. As the wolves close in on Cadence, she obscures herself in darkness.

Undeterred, Teagan charges into the darkness, gets punched by a statue on the way down, and lands in position to recklessly and blindly swing at the wolves surrounding Cadence. Aiaoue continues to get as many of the wolves as possible in her aura of woodland beings. The Warden grins eerily at Arkyn, casts silence, and then goes and stabs him in the gut. Although his scream is physically silent, the all capital letter scream he sends in the mental group chat is not. Vendetta responds with emojies of sympathy. Milo dispels the silence, much to the Warden's annoyance and Arkyn's relief. Arkyn puts some space between himself and the Warden, while, on the far side of the chamber, Yenush gets a wild magic grit point (with the wild magic confused he isn't a sorcerer), can't get intoxicated (he's never been more sober), and starts to smell real good and he's feeling a bit more charismatic than usual.

The Warden pursues Arkyn, casting Silence once more and landing another stab. For a moment, Arkyn feels as if Death Ward should bring him back up... but then it doesn't as the Warden dispels the effect. The Warden's concentration is eventually broken and Arkyn is brought back to consciousness. He hauls himself over the balcony, declaring that he really doesn't want to tank anymore. To the surprise of no one, The Warden pursues getting off yet another silence... that Milo once again dispels. Desperate, Arkyn stabs the Warden... only for a wolf to die and the Warden to wrench himself back upright. Aiaoue and Teagan charge into the fray while Yenush destroys the final wolf. The Warden manages to sever Aiaoue's connection with the Woodland beings and, when he teleports away, is downed by Milo who resorts to stabbing with his rarely-used rapier.

The long dead and broken form of the Warden collapsed on the floor, his eerie blue grin cracked and fractured. His blue eye flickered and faded as a heavy silence settled over the chamber. The silver strands connected to the Warden writhed and hissed before they too fell still and silent. And then something exhaled a frigid, stale breath.

The starry ceiling coalesces into writhing flesh and the skull began to descend. Warped moonstones drifted through the air as multiple gaunt, elongated limbs clawed forth from the starry expanse. The silver threads formed shackles connected to frostbitten wrists and a silver light appeared in the sockets of the warped skull. Looking directly at Arkyn, it spoke:

Yours rests upon a wreath of flowers, a symbol of her birth. Mine rests upon the site of her torment, chained and bound.

The doors at the far end of the hall are disintegrated in a brilliant flash of light. The corrupted creatures hauled itself over the balcony, weaving a silver path beneath it. Iridescent bubbles followed the corrupted creature, flooding the starry expanse beyond. 

My burdens are mine and mine alone. No mortal can bear what I have.   But if you are so determined to walk a path long stained crimson... Your burdens I shall claim. And leave you with blissful nothingness.

Everyone but Arkyn notes that the chains dangling from the creature's limbs catch ever so often on the Silver Path, slowing the creature's movement. Yenush then becomes a beacon of light, temporarily blinding Milo and Aiaoue. Arkyn does finally manage to get that Fire Shield Up. Teagan charges forth down the Silver Path and attempts to, but fails, to grab one of the silver chains dangling from Kesar'Arrat. It releases a screech before simply... silver stepping away. As it lands, a new piece of the Silver Path forms beneath it. Meanwhile, Aiaoue - blinded - is able to grab Arkyn and begin moving him towards Kesar'Arrat.

Kesar'Arrat reaches to the starry expanse above and sends multiple stars spiraling towards people. Cadence, Aiaoue, and Arkyn are restrained and Arkyn is able to get a Feather Fall off to prevent he and Aiaoue from plummeting into the starry expanse below. Where the stars pierce the Silver Path, it began to crack. Yenush, realizing he can't shoot at Kesar'Arrat at the moment, fires at the 2 stars restraining Aiaoue and Arkyn, shattering them. Cadence follows Yenush's lead and shatters the star restaining her. 

Teagan makes a valiant leap across the gap between Silver Path platforms and - with his obsidian arm, manages to grab a chain and drive it down into the Silver Path beneath Kesar'Arrat. The creature's focus immediately shifts to Teagan as it screeches in displeasure. Aiaoue, with Arkyn in tow, arrives on scene and manages to grab another chain with her beak. The creature turns and bites onto Teagan. As Arkyn touches the barrier, the shock passes through and shatters it, exposing a silver, frigid heart within the writhing starry expanse. Screeching, the creature Silver steps immediately with Teagan still clutched within its jaws. Yenush, seeing the opportunity... opens fire and becomes a humanoid strobe light.

Teagan, still stuck in its mouth, brings the warhammer down for an attack, causing it to explode (and burning a legendary). In return, the creature leans over the starry expanse and drops Teagan. Although too far away for Aiaoue to attempt to catch him, Arkyn is able to cast feather fall. And the distorted skull turns, silver eye meeting Arkyns as it casts a spell. Reaction burned, there is no way to counter the Befuddlement spell that rockets towards Milo... and kills him insantly.

With the creature exposed, Yenush opens fire and Arkyn forces it to burn another legendary. Aggravated, the creature drops the floor from beneath Cadence, sending her spiraling and slamming into another portion of the Silver Path. Life's Emergency gets her right back into the fight! Teagan pursues the creature and finds that wrangling a chain is a bit easier this time around. Teagan slowly begins to eat more and more of Kesar'Arrat's physical attacks. Aiaoue runs to Milo, dropping out of bird form to use her Revivify totem on him. Milo's ears ring as a flood of images flash before him: fallen warriors, a bloodied field, broken weapons. And then the sensation of being wrenched back to life. Getting to his feet and healing himself.

Arkyn pins the second chain down with a special double-feather combo from Zephyr's feather and Yensuh manages to fire a sorrow bubble right into the creature's chest, exposing it once more. Cadence moves back towards solid ground after her falling experience. Teagan and Aiaoue level strikes against the creature before Aiaoue is incapacitated by a Psychic Lance. In response to Kesar'Arrat clawing at him and critically hitting, Teagan "gets belligerent" and crits RIGHT BACK. Milo chooses to hold his action as Arkyn discovers Kesar'Arrat is vulnerable to Psychic, burning the last of his legendary resistances. Yenush continues to experience only positive wild magic effects. As the creature begins to close itself off once more... Milo Messages it. 

For a brief moment, you left my child without a father, my wife without a husband. You let my friends stand over my body not knowing if I'd leave here with them.   And that's fine. The world will go on.   But you... I don't think you could live with that.

As if struck by a blow, the distorted skull clacks to the side... as it fails to close itself off again. A starry apparition appears and attempts to possess Yenush but fails. Teagan continues to stay on Kesar'Arrat as he teleports around, but manages to resist being forced in front of the Cone of Cold that Kesar'Arrat levels at everyone. Arkyn slams Kesar'Arrat and the apparition with Phantasmal Plunge and while neither can go prone, Kesar'Arrat takes a hefty amount of damage. Yenush opens fire once more... and then surrounds hismelf with a Wall of Fire (and he shrinks 4 inches!). Beyond the opague wall of flames, Kesar'Arrat closes himself off once more.

Teagan and Aiaoue manage to pin Kesar'Arrat down once more as Milo dispels the Wall of Fire and Cadence continues to heal as she's able. Arkyn then critically strikes Kesar'Arrat with Shocking Grasp and, expending some extra magical OOMPH, is able to do enough to fell Kesar'Arrat. Arkyn thinks of the forest and sends mushrooms and spores up through the exposed rip cage of Kesar'Arrat. The spores freeze as the frigid hard cracks and dissolves. The Void Shard appears in front of Arkyn. Channeling his anger and with some seasoning from Aiaoue, Arkyn is easily able to acquire the essence of Kesar'Arrat... before the tower begins to rumble and the broken form of a god begins to reform.

On the way out, Yenush wrenches off the Warden's arm, pocketing it. Teagan rips off the Warden's mask... to reveal a featureless face beneath. Creepy.

With relative ease, the group is able to escape (with Milo and Cadence dolling out healing along the way). The doors to the top of the Tower close, leaving Kesar'Arrat to wallow in his eternal torment for awhile longer.