Last Session 40>> into this session 41 ((recap))
At the beginning of the session, we rejoin our party just as they awaken after a much extended rest, the time is very early in the morning, and the rest of the camp are not awake except for the night guards.
Ophi is first to wake up, and she shares her first tender moment with a fully evolved Nix, who is now no longer a fiery bird, but a beautiful young mystical creature in what could only be an image she has chosen because of her emotional link with Ophi.
Nix is clothed by Ophi, and they spend a little amount of time, finally able to converse by speech, and everything is new, as Nix gets used to even walking, as her newest human form.
At that same moment, Zrin, a new addition to the camp, and soon to be the newest member of the party, finishes his chat with the bridges night guard, and moves further into the camp to meet the rest of the party.
Meanwhile, Scarlett has woken up now too and has left her sleeping quarters… She seems very pensive this morning, and still feels enraged a little by the result of her unfortunate meeting with the countess the day before.
Rhyker emerges and joins the others over near the central fire, which has seemingly become a place of rest and relaxation, whether the fire is lit or not… This central hub seems to be where the party get most of their comfort when out of battle.
After a brief time spent on introductions and conversing with each other, Zrin is welcomed into the party, and he accepts their offer to go cleanse the tower of the, meanwhile, Aurora has woken, and is now pacing around camp, stomping about very agitated… She eventually joins the others, introduces herself, and tries to push them into some action.
She offers to perform a quick scouting trip for the party, and sees if anything had changed down in the tower… she returns about 10 seconds later after dashing through the portal. and Ophi is very relieved to see Aurora return, throwing her arms around her almost as soon as she returns to them in camp.
In the time that all this has been going on, the time has reached the earliest point in the day where the npc’s with stores are opening up for business, and Scarlett goes and grabs a few items from a still sleepy Akara… Soon after, Ophi leaves a few items with Cain that she wishes for him to identify, and as soon as the rest of the party are ready, they all head back through the portal.
We move back to the domain of the countess then…. where Rhyker is the first to exit the portal, Zrin follows him closely behind, a few words of the encouragement are shared between Rhyker and Zrin, along with the taunting words from the countess herself, as she witnesses the party beginning to reassemble in her domain once more… Soon, the last of the party members steps through, eager to exact revenge on her sworn enemy.
The portal fades and closes as soon as she steps through… the way back is now closed, and the only exit left right now, is to take the countess and her minions out! – The battle inevitably, begins!
Scarlett centers herself, focuses her mind on the task, and fires her crossbow at one of the Blood Clan goat demons, which narrowly misses it as he dives forward towards the where the party stand, upon getting close enough, he swings his battle axe twice into the the chest of Zrin, and sadly the weak of body sorcerer goes down.
Ophi is their next target, and she too suffers a painful strike from the axe blade swung by the next goat demon, as it charges into close range, and swings its axe in her direction.
In a vengeance filled trance… Scarlett takes out the first of the goat demon guards, with a well placed shot from her crossbow… this left only one one of the demons, and the countess moves in closer after her initial casting of the firewall, which leaves Rhyker prone after he tries to dive out the way of the danger and fails, he is just a moment too slow to react, and he is badly burned by it, but he manages to concentrate enough to keep his Holy Fire aura active.
Aurora resists the attempts from the countess to sway her mind, and returns the favor with a well placed shot from her bow with an ice imbued arrow, she lands the hit, and deals some damage, but instantly adds a slowing effect to the countess, as her body is filled with Ice magic, chilling her to the bone, reducing her movement substantially.
Zrin taps into his wild magic abilities he has as a sorcerer, but he pays the price for meddling with unstable magical powers, and is severely slowed down by some strange mystical forces that work against him.
He flees backwards as the countess closes in, or at least tries to, as very slyly, Rhyker slashes her across the back of her calf muscle, and she stops in her tracks, instead focusing on cutting him down, but she doesn’t deal enough damage and Rhyker – thanks to his new found constitutional toughness, manages to withstand her damage that she dishes out, and stands his ground.
Meanwhile, Scarlett loads up her crossbow, and fires at the last of the guards… who takes the bolt through the head, and it flies out the other side, and thunks into the wall.
To finish up, Scarlett tries to administer some battlefield healing on the fly as she puts distance between her and the countess.
The battle goes on for some time, with a few intense moments… and you can see how that all played out in the previous sessions video, but to bring things up to speed here… Ophi manages with her witch bolt spell, and Nix tag teams the countess with a firebolt cantrip.
The fire and dark lighting hit at the same time, absolutely destroying the countess’s body, releasing her demonic spirit from the vessel it took the form of, turning the body into a pile of smoldering ashes and nothing more.
The battle has come to a sudden halt… and for the first time the party witness what is an actual Demon soul, despite what they may believe, they too have souls, but they are evil, and corrupt, and share no light with a human soul.
As the body turns to ashes, another unexpected thing happens, the body of a fallen rogue sister, appears in the middle of the blood pentagram on the smoothed over stone surface, Aurora instantly notices that this is the body of Blaise, somehow it was kept from sight from everyone by sinister magic that broke after the countess fell.
Aurora leans over her sisters body, screams out in pain at the loss of her sister, and bursts into tears as she hugs the lifeless body of Blaise.
So this is where our last session ends, and where this session will begin.
Act One: Episode 41 – The Great Escape
