17 - 12/04/25 : Quo non Ascendam

 

"Oh, I grow so tired of you mortals! Your humdrum little passions, your constant squabbling, your incessant accusations and excuses! You treat each other like dirt, you push weaklings like the Vhane brothers into our arms... and then you have the audacity to accuse us!"
 

Minagho

 

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  The battle against Minagho soon concluded with the party emerging as victorious. However, as she fell, Minagho's body was replaced in a magic flash by a withered out husk of a human woman that was clearly not the lilitu; the party surmised that she used some sort of husk in her place, and escaped into a new body afterwards.
  The party continued looking for the Sword of Valor, and found the red banner at the end of a dark, long hallway. This banner turned out to be a fake, and approaching it summoned a shade of the demon lord Deskari to attack the party. The shade was a far cry from the true Deskari however, and was quickly defeated by the party.
  In the following room, the group encountered a badly injured half-elven knight that was chained up to a statue of Zurha Aponavicius, the marilith that ruled Drezen. The elf initially did not believe that the party was real, instead believing them to be torturous illusions. However, after proving that they were real, the party was shocked to learn that the knight was none other than Yaniel - the hero of the Fourth Crusade who went missing over twenty years ago, as well as the original wielder of the blade Radiance, which was now in the hands of Elseth.
  Seeking to release her from her two decades of imprisonment and torment, the party broke Yaniel's restraints and gave her Joran's enchanted hammer to defend herself. Yaniel was saddened to learn that her old friend Joran had fallen to evil, but accepted the hammer solemnly, and gave Elseth her blessing to continue wielding Radiance.
  After leaving Yaniel to recuperate and promising to come back for her after they recovered the Sword of Valor, the Knight-Commanders pushed forward and finally discovered the banner's true resting place; at the end of a long chamber, being guarded by none other than Zurha Aponavicius.
  The marilith wasted little time before launching into battle, bringing forth a cyclone of steel as she swung about her six deadly scimitars. A long and arduous fight fight followed, with the party seizing any advantage they could find. Regill's bravely stole the Marilith's attention by using the spell compelled duel, which succeeded after he invoked the blood war on behalf of the Hells. The gap slowly closed even as Zurha brought to bear a bout of mythic power of her own much like Nulkineth before her, in addition to an array of purple crystals that launched beams of deadly energy at the party.
  As Zurha's defenses waned, Alanis sicced an entire squadron of her conjured undead at the marilith, which proceeded to tear her apart until she was no longer able to fight. Cursing the party and the crusade as she fell, Zurha was finally banished to the Abyss, leaving behind her magic scimitar the Elusive Sting, which Satomi claimed.
  Satomi also looked closer at the purple crystals in Zurha's chamber, noting them to be made of the same material as the Nahyndrian Crystal given to her by Areelu Vorlesh in Kenabres.
  Elseth made her way over to the holy relic of her faith and reverently beheld it. The Sword of Valor was a red banner emblazoned with a white, downward-pointing sword, and stained with several splotches of blood; the blood of ​Muir, shed when she was a mere mortal before her ascension. She gently removed the banner from the altar it laid upon, and the party decided to make their way to a prominent tower of the citadel in order to spread its powerful magic across the battlefield.
  With Yaniel in tow, the group tore through the upper level of Citadel Drezen, finding caches of hidden treasure as well as Staunton's old quarters, kept spotless even after ninety years had passed since he lost the title of Warden. They eventually reached the northwest tower, where a chimera imbued with mythic power awaited them. The chimera was a rather easy victory to claim, and the party was finally able to fly the Sword of Valor from the side of the tower.
  Hanging the blessed banner caused an expulsion of holy energy which washed over the battlefield, outright destroying many of the weaker demons and turning the others, quickly flipping the battle below into a complete rout. However, the banner's power did more than simply repel the demonic forces, and the four Knight-Commanders soon found their mythic powers swelling within their bodies. Each of them coughed up a spray of blood as their bodies changed and underwent a metamorphosis, but they felt no pain; only elation in the wake of their new mythic forms.
  Satomi's body quickly turned a shade of stark white, and ornate patterns began to manifest on her skin. Her single tail became a full nine, and her form as the Mythic Trickster solidified her as an agent of havoc and change.
  Elseth's back manifested two explosions of blood and light, from which sprouted two broad, bloodstained angel wings. A glimmering halo formed over her head, casting the area around her in the light of the Mythic Angel.
  Alanis' skin was drained of all color, and her eyes became milky-white orbs that saw beyond the veil of the living world. The aura of pale emerald energy swirling around her heralded her as the Mythic Deathlord, master of the land's undead.
  Hilda's very body was infused with the essence of magic, much like that which comprised her arcane arm. Although her physical form remained largely the same, and her arm regained its original appearance, a palpable hurricane of arcane power swirling about her heralded her ascension as the Mythic Magus.
  Just as the Knight-Commanders were changed by the artifact's power, the Sword of Valor was changed by the will and ideals of the four champions that recovered it. transforming it from a holy banner of Muir to a banner representing all four Knight-Commanders.
 
  Witnessing this display, Yaniel's demeanor changed - not into one of awe, but one of scientific curiosity. 'Yaniel' apologized to the party for the masquerade, and revealed her true form as her illusory disguise fell; standing in her place was Areelu Vorlesh, Betrayer of Humanity and Architect of the Worldwound, appearing in front of the party once again in the wake of their mythic transformation.