18 - 09/20/23 : The Fire Set Aflame
"Allow me to give you some advice; be silent and die with dignity. Or scream. You will join the ashes either way."
Urstul Floxin
The fight against Urstul Floxin the Ash Revenant continued, the party enduring the blistering torrent of heat swirling wildly around their foe. Vesper clashed with her departed beloved, and he spoke words that stoked doubt and shook her for a moment. Before he could deliver a decisive blow, however, Edea fired a shot that interrupted him and allowed Vesper to escape and re-affirm her stance. Edea dismissed Urstul's rage and admonished him for taking it out on Vesper, declaring that they all deserved to make their own decisions. Urstul merely laughed and continued his furious assault against the party, though as they began to overtake him, his amusement turned to desperation. With the aid of Quistis' defensive magics and through sheer tenacity, the party was eventually able to push Urstul back, though he assured Vesper that he would return as he always did. In the hard-won peace, Edea affirmed that there would be time to talk things out and decide their next move once they returned to the surface, for the party was far too hurt and worn-down to continue. The rest agreed, and they retreated through the portal and back up to the Balladeer's Eclipse. Edea and her mother agreed that it would be best to talk in private, for they had much to discuss and a great deal of lost time between the two; to say nothing of Quistis' trauma from her time in the Undermountain. Before the two retired for the evening, Edea ran up to Ozwik and wrapped him in a tight hug, as thanks for the years of travelling together, and then left to join her mother. Ozwik, Hilda, and Sin were left with a visibly shaken Vesper, who was still affected by Urstul's words. She had her doubts about her chosen course; Urstul was sure to return again, and as a revenant, he would be impossible to put down unless he fulfilled the object of his revenge or was eradicated via divine intervention or the wish spell. Even as a chosen of Desna, she had access to neither of the latter two, and the former encompassed Urstul's desire for the destruction of the world itself; something that of course Vesper could not let come to pass. Hilda suggested something to the effect of planar binding until a solution could be found. However, Vesper refused; she did not want other people to take on the burden of financing the imprisonment of a spectre of her past. Furthermore, she still held a great deal of affection for her memories of Urstul. Even if the revenant they fought was his soul twisted by hate and amplified emotions, she could not bring herself to commit to any plan to bind him instead of setting him free. She resolved that she would have to fight him each time as a sort of penance for her past, until such a time that a solution presented itself. Ozwik agreed with the insistence on not subjecting Urstul to imprisonment, and Vesper thanked them for sticking by her despite the dangers. As she departed to rest and contemplate the future, her blade Elenathra glowed a bit brighter in the growing dark of the nighttime tavern lighting. Ozwik and Sin also briefly bonded over their avoidance of romance and the troubles that often accompany it. Bidding Sin goodnight, Oz allowed the two Hildas to rejoin before taking her up to his room in her designated fancy salad bowl. After a rest, the party regrouped, with Edea joining the others with reddened and puffy eyes from crying the night before. She said that she and her mother spent much of the previous night talking and sharing many mixed emotions, and that it would take time and effort for their relationship to heal. However, they were talking and they were together, and it was a start. Quistis then informed the party that she would be spending her time at Reilly's Spring of Creation, where she intended to practice her expertise in artifice as a way to center herself after her difficult experiences and to re-discover a purpose in life. She thanked the party for being fine friends to Edea, and asked them to keep her alive before departing. Still in a mix of emotions, Edea expressed her frustration that her reunion with her mother was confusing and full of difficult feelings, not at all like the storybook endings one could hear from bard's tales. Ozwik assured her that such endings were never so simple, and Vesper assured her that her mother situation could always be worse; after all, Vesper's mother had been a drow matron mother. The party descended once again after their preparations, trying not to waste any time in searching for Wyn's cure and Yzzan's whereabouts. After returning to the point where the portal to Wyllowwood had stood, they found Halaster standing before a newly carved stairwell. Halaster explained that he had decided to scrap Wyllowwood now that the titular Wyllow had departed, and that he was working on ideas for a new fifth layer of the Undermountain. Until then, he would grant them limited entry to the sixth layer; The Lost Layer, also known as the Dwarven Halls of Clan Stoneborn. Halaster further warned the party that a particularly troublesome 'individual' held a greater deal of control over the layer than Halaster liked. A steward of the old Dwarven ruins possessed the ability to open and close tunnels from the Lost Layer, and Halaster advised the party to be cautious should they encounter such a person. The party assumed this person to be the mysterious Duran Stoneborn they had heard so much about, and continued downward. As they arrived in the sixth level, they encountered the sounds of fighting, which Halaster had attributed to a 'breakdown in communications'. They identified the battle cries and commands to be from both demons speaking abyssal and drow speaking their own language, implying the conflict was between the drow of House Arkhenneld and demons summoned as servants to Aezora. Vesper warned the party of demons and other fiends that were possibly in Aezora's employ, in particular recalling the draegloths; unholy fiends that were the product the ritualistic union between a drow priestess and a glabrezu. As they proceeded forward, the party found tracks that Vesper, regretting her earlier words as accidentally prophetic, found to belong to a draegloth. As they searched further, they were suddenly assailed by a gruff voice commanding them to leave the lost level, and even as Ozwik tried to assure they meant no harm, they were still attacked by the defenders of the ruins. From down a nearby hall came a trio of golems; one built out of a large ale cask, one composed entirely of ball bearings, and a third built of pieces of armor and assorted weapons. As the party clashed with these constructs, another enemy burst forth; the draegloth that had left the previously encountered tracks! As the party fought to maintain their footing amongst a hail of ball bearings, they were able to defeat the three golems and the draegloth as well. In the wake of the armory golem's demise, a finely made black-steel rapier clattered to the ground; Sin grabbed the powerful weapon, which she identified as the legendary Phantom Dancer, and steeled herself for the battles to come. As the party searched further, they were stopped by the appearance of Aezora. The succubus tried to gain their cooperation despite their opposition and her abduction of Yzzan. She requested that they pitch in and help her kill Duran Stoneborn so that she could claim the sixth level as her own domain away from Desposyni. The party firmly refused, and the keen intuition of Ozwik, Hilda, and Sin helped them infer from Aezora's subtle words and expressions that it was Hilda's presence that kept Aezora trapped in the Undermountain as a sort of 'anchor'. Aezora did not wish to die on the Material Plane, as she had only just been freed from the blade recently and did not wish to spend decades reforming on her home plane. Once she was convinced that the party would not bend to her whims, Aezora warned them that Duran might not be the hero they expected and coldly withdrew, daring them to come and try to 'take their dragon back'. As the party walked forward, Vesper found a hallway littered with drow corpses; all of which had been coated in a thick layer of frost.
The fight against Urstul Floxin the Ash Revenant continued, the party enduring the blistering torrent of heat swirling wildly around their foe. Vesper clashed with her departed beloved, and he spoke words that stoked doubt and shook her for a moment. Before he could deliver a decisive blow, however, Edea fired a shot that interrupted him and allowed Vesper to escape and re-affirm her stance. Edea dismissed Urstul's rage and admonished him for taking it out on Vesper, declaring that they all deserved to make their own decisions. Urstul merely laughed and continued his furious assault against the party, though as they began to overtake him, his amusement turned to desperation. With the aid of Quistis' defensive magics and through sheer tenacity, the party was eventually able to push Urstul back, though he assured Vesper that he would return as he always did. In the hard-won peace, Edea affirmed that there would be time to talk things out and decide their next move once they returned to the surface, for the party was far too hurt and worn-down to continue. The rest agreed, and they retreated through the portal and back up to the Balladeer's Eclipse. Edea and her mother agreed that it would be best to talk in private, for they had much to discuss and a great deal of lost time between the two; to say nothing of Quistis' trauma from her time in the Undermountain. Before the two retired for the evening, Edea ran up to Ozwik and wrapped him in a tight hug, as thanks for the years of travelling together, and then left to join her mother. Ozwik, Hilda, and Sin were left with a visibly shaken Vesper, who was still affected by Urstul's words. She had her doubts about her chosen course; Urstul was sure to return again, and as a revenant, he would be impossible to put down unless he fulfilled the object of his revenge or was eradicated via divine intervention or the wish spell. Even as a chosen of Desna, she had access to neither of the latter two, and the former encompassed Urstul's desire for the destruction of the world itself; something that of course Vesper could not let come to pass. Hilda suggested something to the effect of planar binding until a solution could be found. However, Vesper refused; she did not want other people to take on the burden of financing the imprisonment of a spectre of her past. Furthermore, she still held a great deal of affection for her memories of Urstul. Even if the revenant they fought was his soul twisted by hate and amplified emotions, she could not bring herself to commit to any plan to bind him instead of setting him free. She resolved that she would have to fight him each time as a sort of penance for her past, until such a time that a solution presented itself. Ozwik agreed with the insistence on not subjecting Urstul to imprisonment, and Vesper thanked them for sticking by her despite the dangers. As she departed to rest and contemplate the future, her blade Elenathra glowed a bit brighter in the growing dark of the nighttime tavern lighting. Ozwik and Sin also briefly bonded over their avoidance of romance and the troubles that often accompany it. Bidding Sin goodnight, Oz allowed the two Hildas to rejoin before taking her up to his room in her designated fancy salad bowl. After a rest, the party regrouped, with Edea joining the others with reddened and puffy eyes from crying the night before. She said that she and her mother spent much of the previous night talking and sharing many mixed emotions, and that it would take time and effort for their relationship to heal. However, they were talking and they were together, and it was a start. Quistis then informed the party that she would be spending her time at Reilly's Spring of Creation, where she intended to practice her expertise in artifice as a way to center herself after her difficult experiences and to re-discover a purpose in life. She thanked the party for being fine friends to Edea, and asked them to keep her alive before departing. Still in a mix of emotions, Edea expressed her frustration that her reunion with her mother was confusing and full of difficult feelings, not at all like the storybook endings one could hear from bard's tales. Ozwik assured her that such endings were never so simple, and Vesper assured her that her mother situation could always be worse; after all, Vesper's mother had been a drow matron mother. The party descended once again after their preparations, trying not to waste any time in searching for Wyn's cure and Yzzan's whereabouts. After returning to the point where the portal to Wyllowwood had stood, they found Halaster standing before a newly carved stairwell. Halaster explained that he had decided to scrap Wyllowwood now that the titular Wyllow had departed, and that he was working on ideas for a new fifth layer of the Undermountain. Until then, he would grant them limited entry to the sixth layer; The Lost Layer, also known as the Dwarven Halls of Clan Stoneborn. Halaster further warned the party that a particularly troublesome 'individual' held a greater deal of control over the layer than Halaster liked. A steward of the old Dwarven ruins possessed the ability to open and close tunnels from the Lost Layer, and Halaster advised the party to be cautious should they encounter such a person. The party assumed this person to be the mysterious Duran Stoneborn they had heard so much about, and continued downward. As they arrived in the sixth level, they encountered the sounds of fighting, which Halaster had attributed to a 'breakdown in communications'. They identified the battle cries and commands to be from both demons speaking abyssal and drow speaking their own language, implying the conflict was between the drow of House Arkhenneld and demons summoned as servants to Aezora. Vesper warned the party of demons and other fiends that were possibly in Aezora's employ, in particular recalling the draegloths; unholy fiends that were the product the ritualistic union between a drow priestess and a glabrezu. As they proceeded forward, the party found tracks that Vesper, regretting her earlier words as accidentally prophetic, found to belong to a draegloth. As they searched further, they were suddenly assailed by a gruff voice commanding them to leave the lost level, and even as Ozwik tried to assure they meant no harm, they were still attacked by the defenders of the ruins. From down a nearby hall came a trio of golems; one built out of a large ale cask, one composed entirely of ball bearings, and a third built of pieces of armor and assorted weapons. As the party clashed with these constructs, another enemy burst forth; the draegloth that had left the previously encountered tracks! As the party fought to maintain their footing amongst a hail of ball bearings, they were able to defeat the three golems and the draegloth as well. In the wake of the armory golem's demise, a finely made black-steel rapier clattered to the ground; Sin grabbed the powerful weapon, which she identified as the legendary Phantom Dancer, and steeled herself for the battles to come. As the party searched further, they were stopped by the appearance of Aezora. The succubus tried to gain their cooperation despite their opposition and her abduction of Yzzan. She requested that they pitch in and help her kill Duran Stoneborn so that she could claim the sixth level as her own domain away from Desposyni. The party firmly refused, and the keen intuition of Ozwik, Hilda, and Sin helped them infer from Aezora's subtle words and expressions that it was Hilda's presence that kept Aezora trapped in the Undermountain as a sort of 'anchor'. Aezora did not wish to die on the Material Plane, as she had only just been freed from the blade recently and did not wish to spend decades reforming on her home plane. Once she was convinced that the party would not bend to her whims, Aezora warned them that Duran might not be the hero they expected and coldly withdrew, daring them to come and try to 'take their dragon back'. As the party walked forward, Vesper found a hallway littered with drow corpses; all of which had been coated in a thick layer of frost.
Portraits
HALASTER BLACKCLOAK
THE FAIRHILL FOUR & CO.
NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS
Comments