09 - 8/28/25 : Terras Irradiare

 

"Some actions may be deemed bold or even extreme, and beyond those, there are some you might call the Queen's last resort. I am not a simple monarch. I am at war with the Abyss - a war which has lasted over a hundred years. I cannot allow myself the luxury of caution. In you, I see a chance - and I am willing to stake everything on it."  

Queen Galfrey I of Mendev

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  After Areelu departed, Seelah spoke with the party about not trusting anything she had to say. The group agreed; even Satomi, who didn't have to trust her to take advantage of what she had to give.   Irabeth and Anevia arrived on the second floor, asking if the party had seen Staunton, who had broken through the demon's lines into the Gray Garrison by himself. They informed her that they hadn't, but let her know what Areelu had said to them about the Wardstone plot. Despite the source of the information, Irabeth was spurred to rush upstairs, followed closely by Anevia.  

As you broach the final stretch of the stairwell, the pathway widens into a grand precipice bathed in a burning orange glow. The vulnerable core of the great Wardstone of Kenabres looms over you, freed from its protective stone armor by Deskari's attack and then further profaned by Minagho's abyssal magics. The stone pulses like a beating heart, sending waves of fiery light into the night sky and a swell of heat into the plaza before you. The undoubtedly massive gathering of energy within the artifact seems raring to escape, as if the Wardstone is only one crack away from an utterly cataclysmic explosion. Yet when you look upon the stone, your heart does not fall prey to fear; the strange emotion that grips you as you gaze upon the Wardstone is more akin to betrayal.   On the far end of the courtyard, barely visible against the flaming halo of the Wardstone drowning out the surrounding darkness, stands Minagho, her claws lasciviously tracing across the face of Staunton Vhane, leaving trails of warm blood in their wake. Before her, a point of light appears, expanding into a translucent shape of a massive goat-headed man, his back adorned by a pair of ragged, raven-feathered wings. The image of the demon lord Baphomet turns to Minagho expectantly.   "I've done as you've commanded, my lord Baphomet. In just a few scant minutes, the kingdom of Mendev - all of its cities, all of its fortresses, all of its pathetic crusaders - they will all be dust. I have sealed the Wardstone's fate, and it shall be the catalyst for the destruction of its siblings. The shield given to Mendev by the Heavens will become the sword that destroys it! And I even found my darling Staunton after all this time… A happy ending for everyone involved, truly."   Staunton spits on the ground at Minagho's face, but his eyebrows quiver slightly as she speaks. Baphomet fills the silence next, speaking as he holds up a clawed hand. The malice radiating even from a mere image of the creature is palpable.   "I care nothing for your mortal plaything, Minagho. And you forget yourself by letting the euphoria of your successes overtake your judgement. Imprisonment first begins in the mind, and it is unbecoming of one of my servants to trap herself in a haze of self-deceit. You are blind even now to the crusaders in your very midst."   Minagho turns around and glares at your party with her eyeless visage. Her tail cracks like a whip, splitting a stone tile as it strikes. "So it seems. Apologies, my lord; a lioness sometimes fails to notice the ants that crawl beneath its paws."   "Kill them." Baphomet states simply. For a moment, the image of the demon lord locks eyes with you, and you feel a crushing weight in your chest, as if a spectral hand wrapped around your heart and began to squeeze. "Their blood will serve as a fine final flourish on this canvas. Minagho; return to me with news of Mendev's destruction, or do not return at all."   As the illusory Baphomet disappears, Minagho takes a step towards the part. "I must admit, the past one hundred years have proven one thing; you crusaders may be pathetic, vigorless soldiers, but you certainly excel at ruining the mood. But that's fine; I haven't had much opportunity to get my lovely claws dirty during this whole affair. I will rend your flesh from your bone and make you beg me to keep going, and then I will make you watch as your lovely little magic rock explodes and takes the rest of your pitiful country with it. And Staunton… you'll be right by my side to watch them - the people who made your life a living hell - all burn, won't you, my love?"   The broken dwarf next to Minagho has the presence of a proud statue of a man ground to dust, and looks at you with the weariest face you have ever laid eyes upon.

  The party stepped forward as they rebuked Minagho. Hilda managed to reach out to the Wardstone in an attempt to control its magic, and by doing so filled the minds of the party with visions. They watched as two hosts of angelic warriors - one side a blinding white, the other a bleeding crimson - battled for dominance within the crystal.  

For a moment, a thin veil is laid over your mortal sight, and suddenly you see the Wardstone not as it was a moment ago, but somehow completely different. It is no monolith, emanating light - it is a cage made of pure energy. The place where Deskari struck looks like a festering wound, from which tendrils of dirty red and purple darkness creep throughout the entire artifact.   And there, inside, two hosts of flaming warriors are locked in battle conflict; one comprised of shining soldiers of light, the other made of warriors of a deep shade of red, the color of a freshly bleeding wound.   The light warriors speak of duty, service, and sacrifices made. Their words reveal the truth of the Wardstones; each one contains a host of angels, volunteers from the heavens who committed to this indefinite imprisonment in order to guard mortalkind from the demonic threat. They make no complaint; they ask no easing of their burden. If the goddess and her herald offered them the same choice again, they would consider it the ultimate honor to sacrifice their freedom for the cause.   The angels know the evil plan of Deskari and Baphomet; when the last of the light warriors falls, the Wardstone will become a deadly explosive that will destroy everything around it, and the other obelisks in the chain will meet the same fate. The light warriors pray for help; they plead for someone to strike down their fallen brethren. Those who succumbed to the demonic corruption are already beyond salvation, but if they are stopped it will allow the Wardstone to heal and the light host to continue its duty.   The crystalline Nahyndrian Chisel gifted by Areelu Vorlesh is the ideal weapon for this task. It will cut out the corruption along with those who have succumbed to it, and restore the Wardstone's power!   The red warriors speak of pain and lies, and disillusionment. Their words reveal the truth of the Wardstones: the barrier surrounding the Worldwound is built on the bondage and suffering of countless angels. Every injury dealt to the Wardstone these angels experience as physical agony. The pain is driving them insane. Deceived by hollow platitudes about duty and service, they suffer torment day after day for the sake of ungrateful mortals who do not even know their names; enough!   The red warriors know that their blades, now turned against their former brethren, hasten the triumph of the demons. Once the Wardstone has been wholly conquered by corruption, it will become a deadly weapon under the demons' control. Some of the obelisks' prisoners beg for freedom, while others pray only for death, but they all agree that this existence is unendurable.   Once again, the Nahyndrian Chisel appears to be the key. It cannot force open the door for those who wish to escape, but it can destroy the Wardstone along with all of its prisoners, willing and unwilling. None will be able to claim victory - but all will be gifted a merciful death that will spare the rest of the Wardstones, and will end their suffering once and for all.   There it is; the fate of two angelic hosts, faithful and fallen, and the fate of Kenabres- perhaps even all of Mendev - now rests in the small crystalline chisel in your hand. Whatever the chisel may be, its power is great indeed. It can destroy the stone along with all its inhabitants - or it can mend it by killing the angel defectors within. What it cannot do, alas, is free those who wish to escape, and keep the stone intact for those who remain.

  As the vision concluded, the party saw the fading image of an angel wearing an eyeless golden helmet looking down upon the Wardstone, radiating with sadness in spite of his sealed face.   Minagho forced the party away from the Wardstone by erecting a magic barrier around it, and summoned a score of demonic minions to impede the party while she endeavored to finish her work on the stone. Battle ensued; Elseth, Satomi, Seelah, and Irabeth bravely took the fore against their abyssal foes, accompanied by Ulbrig who had transformed into a griffon. Hilda, Alanis, and Anevia kept to the back, picking off the foes they could with their ranged attacks.   For every demon that was felled, Minagho summoned another to her side. She soon joined the battle herself, using her malefic lilitu magic to subdue and disable her foes; however, Hilda was able to halt Minagho's powerful sealing magic with a lucky counterspell, and Irabeth was able to draw on her divine constitution to resist Minagho's attempts to magically manipulate her blood.   Frustrated, Minagho got in close to do the dirty work with her own two claws, and Staunton advanced with her. Satomi, enhanced by a potion of speed, rushed to Minagho and Staunton called out to the latter, warning him that siding with the demoness was just replacing one yoke for another. She urged him to turn away from Minagho, not offering him forgiveness or revenge, but promising him freedom. Staunton angrily rebuked this offer, unleashing the pent-up hatred he had for the crusaders after ninety long years of suffering.  

"She's already given me a lot more than all you crusaders ever did. Compassion. Understanding. Kind words. So what if it's a lie? I want to believe her lies. I've had it up to here with yours! Your lies about forgiveness and redemption! I've been listening to fairy tales about redemption for ninety years! Enough! Not another word!"

  Having said her piece, Satomi turned to the Wardstone and struck at it with the Nahyndrian Chisel, breaking through Minagho's barrier. She chose to grant all of the angels within, not just the crimson ones, eternal peace and freedom from their burden. As the chisel made contact, a deep crack formed in the Wardstone's surface.  

The cracks begin to form in the heart of the Wardstone. You watch as orange hues change to a soft blue glow, as the energies contained within begin to leak out from the scratch made by the Nahyndrian Chisel. These energies explode out of the Wardstone in long, glimmering ribbons, seeking out and immediately piercing four - and only four - hearts… those of Satomi, Hilda, Elseth, and Alanis, whether they be beating or otherwise.   Like a blaze rising from a small ember, the mysterious power lying dormant in your soul ever since your fall into the Kenabres underground erupts. What was once a mote of potential is now a roaring gale that threatens to rip you apart from the inside out   As the energy rushes through you, every last fiber of your being surges with power. Confidence sings in your throat, might suffuses your arms, alacrity takes hold in your strides, and the wounds on your person begin to seal with miraculous haste. It immediately occurs to you that you have changed on a fundamental level, have been molded by powers beyond your fathoming or your control. Your mortality is challenged by a new feeling; that of towering, indomitable capability. You are no longer who you once were, a mortal struggling to survive in a game of celestials and fiends; you are now something more. Even the memory of Deskari cleaving Clydwell Plaza seems but a small trifling as you witness this explosive ascension.   All traces of Minagho's bravado have completely disappeared, and now her voice trembles with panic. "How are you doing that? Where is this power coming from?"   The Demoness looks formidable with her entourage around her, but her threats ring hollow to you now. You look at her and feel like a titan gazing down at an ant. Overwhelming, all-conquering power fills you. What, that little demoness? Those irritating hordes of the Abyss? The gods themselves are your only equals now.   Her words may as well be that of a gnat begging for its life. You grip your weapon as mythic resolve flows through you.

  With the explosion of might made quite apparent, Satomi looked to Staunton once more and appealed to him from a different angle; intimidation. She noted that he was free to choose whichever path he wanted, but warned him of the power he now faced if he chose to stand against her and her companions. Staunton, torn between his decades of suffering and his desire for redemption, could only drop his weapons and weep, no longer capable of fighting.   As the power deep within them began to erupt, the party turned their newfound mythic might against the demons. Where once they had to put their all into struggling against their fiendish foes, the party now swatted them aside with ease. Hilda was able to incinerate an armanite demon with a single casting of scorching ray, and her companions landed blows with their weapons that carried the weight of meteorites crashing into the world's surface.   Elseth, Satomi, and Alanis focused their attacks on Minagho after enough of her minions had been disposed of. Even a demon of phenomenal power and prestige such as she quickly crumbled beneath the weight of the mythic awakening unfolding before her, and she was forced to retreat. She pleaded once more to Staunton to come with her as she fled, but the catatonic dwarf did not respond. Furious and terrified in equal measure, Minagho teleported away, leaving the party to clean up the remaining demons.   As the final foes were dispatched, the physical toll taken by their bodies after the mythic surge finally caught up to the party, and the four promptly passed out. The last sight they beheld as their vision went dark was that of the Wardstone crumbling to dust…   The party slowly awoke some time later, finding themselves in an inn room at the Defender's Heart. They all seemed to be alive (or at least whole, in Alanis' case), and in good health save for some soreness and overall fatigue. The group awoke one after another, though Hilda required some effort to rouse from her deep slumber. The group also noticed that Elseth seemed to have grown in height by at least a foot, somehow.   The noise made by the party as they came to alerted Anevia, who poked her head in and greeted the heroes of the hour. She gave them a quick rundown of the situation; the four of them had been unconscious for five days straight, and until they awoke the crusaders were beginning to wonder if they were even alive. In the time that had passed, the Kenabres Wardstone had completely dissolved, but the remaining demons and cultists had been pushed out of the city thanks to the defenders and the timely arrival of Queen Galfrey's army from Nerosyan to the south.   Anevia brought the party to Irabeth, who greeted them far more formally. The commander made it plain; she didn't know how the party received such power from the Wardstone as they did, but it allowed them to stop Minagho's plan. Given that the Queen's army would not have arrived for several days after the fact, the party's mythic awakening had saved Kenabres, and indeed all of Mendev. Irabeth named them heroes, and Anevia mentioned that there was a celebration feast being held at that very moment; a tantalizing prospect, given that the party had been unconscious for five days.   The four heroes of Kenabres joined their companions and several crusaders at the bar. Ulbrig and Seelah, who had been there at their moment of ascension, were particularly elated to see their companions alive and walking.Gemyl tended bar for the party, fetching fine spirits, wine, and even a bottle of sake (much to Satomi's delight). However, it wasn't long before they were called to one of the nearby tables to regale those gathered with the tale of their victory. The group settled into the celebration, with even the serious and severe Elseth managing to smile and loosen up a bit. Many toasted their victory, or took comfort in their survival, but all agreed that the four were the reason that Mendev still stood.   Hoping to capitalize on the sudden burst of fame, Anevia (perhaps jokingly) asked for Hilda to breathe on a rock she had found, likely to make it a resellable souvenir for an undiscerning mark. Hilda did one better and magically inscribed the elder rune of Halaster on the rock, though it carried none of the power that the rune would have if cast by the Mad Mage himself.   Irabeth admonished her wife for this, insisting that it was unbecoming of a public official. This comment caught the attention of a behelmed knight that was in attendance, who mused on the insinuation that such officials could not have a bit of fun now and then. The knight removed her helmet, revealing herself to be none other than Queen Galfrey herself, having snuck into the tavern in an unofficial capacity.   Galfrey greeted the four heroes that she had so badly wanted to meet herself. The Queen's sudden appearance greatly distressed Irabeth, who was concerned with upkeeping standards and etiquette in Her Majesty's presence; Galfrey, however, seemed largely unconcerned. She spoke to the party, sitting at the feast table like any other soldier, and listened to their account of how things happened.   The Queen wondered at the source of their power, and was unsure if it was a gift of Muir; if it were, she believed that she would have at least heard about such a gift, since she was the only known Chosen of the Muse alive on Lloegyr. Still, she did not wish to rule out divine intervention, even where people such as Alanis were concerned.   Galfrey confirmed that she knew that Alanis was undead, but assured her that she preferred to keep an open mind when it came to folk fighting for the crusades. As long as Alanis used her powers under the banner of Mendev, Galfrey was comfortable with treating her just as she did the vampire Gemyl and other noble undead that were known to rarely fight in the crusades.   Wishing to have a private word with the four heroes, Galfrey invited them and Commander Irabeth to step away with her to an unoccupied section of the tavern. There, she repeated her personal thanks and congratulations for the accomplishments of the saviors of Kenabres, and asked if they would be willing to continue serving the crusades in an official capacity.   Galfrey proudly - but quietly - proclaimed the inception of the Fifth Mendevian Crusade, and asked the four heroes to lead this crusade as its Knight-Commanders. She viewed the emergence of mythic heroes in Kenabres' darkest hour as a sign that it was time to once again push into the Worldwound.   Her motives weren't entirely poetic, however; the loss of the Kenabres Wardstone meant that there was a permanent hole in the Wardstone 'fence' protecting the country from the Worldwound and its demons. With a new crusade pressing the advantage as the demons retreated from an unexpected defeat in Kenabres, Mendev would be able to forge ahead deep into demon territory. Galfrey had one goal in mind for the Fifth Crusade; the liberation of the Fortress of Drezen, which had been lost nearly a century ago after Staunton's folly that preceded the Second Crusade.   Drezen was more than just a strategic stronghold in the Worldwound; it was a symbol of the demons' only true conquest in over a century of fighting the crusaders, and its liberation would be an unprecedented boon to Mendev's morale. What's more, Drezen still held the dormant artifact known as the Sword of Valor; a great banner that bore the crest of Muir, depicting a great flaming sword. The Sword of Valor, should it be recovered, would be able to project a field capable of impeding the demons much like the Wardstones had, harming them with holy radiance and preventing their teleportation abilities from functioning.   Galfrey recounted the loss of Drezen and how Staunton had been tricked into carrying the banner into the field of battle, leaving Drezen itself defenseless and ripe for the taking. It was her hope that, with Drezen retaken, the crusaders could regain their own foothold and once again turn their attention towards the fortress of Threshold, where the heart of the Worldwound was said to reside.   Elseth quickly agreed, viewing such work as her holy duty. She only requested one thing of the Queen; that she join Elseth in sharing a drink with some of the common soldiers, so as to show them that their Queen had not forgotten the common folk bravely fighting on the front lines.   Hilda was also quick to accept the title, although it seemed like a lot of work that she was reluctant to do. Still, she wished for nothing more than to fight the demons of the Worldwound, and this would be her best opportunity to do so.   Alanis, curious about the capabilities of her new powers and eager to seek the voice of Zacharias that now guided her, also agreed to lend her services. Beyond fighting the demons, the scholarly opportunities inside the Worldwound were almost certainly beyond imagining.   Satomi was the only member of the party to be reticent about accepting such a commission. She recounted her suffering during the disastrous Third Crusade to the Queen and made it plain that she held no love for the Kingdom of Mendev. However, if serving as Knight-Commander would help her liberate the people of the country from their demonic oppressors and any future witch-hunts, she would do so.   Galfrey assured Satomi that she had long labored to ensure that such a tragedy as the Third Crusade would never happen again. Were the Worldwound to be closed at last, it was a certainty that the people of Mendev would no longer be pushed into paranoia by their fear of the demons.   Although none of the party had any experience in leading armies, Galfrey assured them that she would not be throwing them to the metaphorical wolves. In addition to the companions they had gathered, the party would also be given a standing army provided by Galfrey, as well as several accomplished advisors and generals to help the new Knight-Commanders adapt to their role.   The Queen noted that their mythic power represented a unique opportunity, and that by seizing it, the people of Mendev could once again be inspired to fight back with fervor after a century of setback. She intended for the four of them to serve as a precision strike-team, using their powers to strike against important targets and to brave dangerous places too small to support an entire army.   With the participation of the four heroes confirmed, Galfrey thanked the party and bade them to return to their celebration, and asked them to keep news of the Fifth Crusade quiet until she could make an official announcement after receiving the blessing from the Church of Muir. The Queen then accompanied Elseth to carry out the promise she made, and the celebration ran long into the night…