They head to the throne room. As they get closer they hear the voices of the king and the angel, arguing, each accusing the other of betrayal.
Saffron takes a sneak peek around the corner, and is immediately shaken by the sight of a large, 8 foot tall humanoid dressed in glowing golden armor. He has immense wings that are somewhere between the antlers of a stag and wild tentacles that made of blinding yellow light.
Azriel turns and sees Saffron. He shouts "They told me you were dead! They said the last of you was dead!"
Combat starts. Despite the fact that this is clearly a being of immense power, our heroes charge towards him. However, before the battle can start in earnest, the king uses a scroll and banishes Azriel "back from whence he came." As Azriel disappears, one strand of one of his wings shoots across the room and pierces the king's chest.
Our heroes rush to the side of the king. There is a hole in his chest, and his body is slowly being consumed by yellow fire. He gives the heroes his royal ring and tells them to take it to the king of Tessia, "an old friend." They need to convince the Tessian King to stop warring with his neighbors and band with them against the Dorian Threat. The war is also more advanced then they know. The Northern Alliance has taken a great chunk of the Eastern Alliance, and is now eating away at the Western Alliance (see map). The Dorian armies have just a few days ago started to quietly advance, and our heroes will need to move quickly to outpace it.
Suddenly, Hervey Dunt and his bodyguard Marcus Dawn burst into the room. They are shocked to see the king dying, but when Hervey sees Castor he turns furious. "Where is he? Where is Nut?" He pulls out his "strange metallic wand" and starts shooting peeps.
Marcus deals some massive damage, but an unfortunate critical fumble leaves Saffron with one of his swords. She flees across the room and shoots from a safe distance. Maven is disturbed to see that Hervey's metalic magic missiles go right through his armor, and he backs away as well. Castor and Aymeric get close, and a spiritual weapon critical glops arcane goo onto Hervey.
After a few rounds of heavy damage on both sides, Hervey and Marcus fall. Saffron runs in, shouting something about a tornado, and coup-de-gras them. Aymeric decides to take Hervey's head. Our heroes then loot and hurry out of the castle the same way they came in.
They go back to Smith, where they give him Hervey's head (which he doesn't want... too incriminating). They are surprised to see Nut and Patrick back at Smith's. Evidently, the Salty Stache was searched and burned by Dorian inquisitors. They know that the "False Martyrs" are here. Our heroes decide the best course of action is to trudge the 5 week journey across Mildan to the capital of Tessia and tell the king. They leave the city within the hour, and tell Patrick to meet them in Tessia. Patrick, not having the greatest of relations with our heroes, gives a non-commital response.
That first night, Nut begins having nightmares.
In his sleep he sees a beheaded Hervey Dunt scrambling in the dark. The agent is chasing after a woman that Nut does not recognize. Then, to Nut's surprise, he himself appears, slits the woman's throat, then walks away. Hervey changes course. Now the headless corpse is crawling after him. Hervey gets closer and closer until Nut wakes in a terror.
The dreams happen the next night. And the night after that. And the night after that. Every night, it seems, Nut is being chased by the corpse of Hervey.
A few days out of town, and our heroes grab some horses.
Our heroes are now a week away from Auger. It's Saffron's watch, maybe 1 or 2 in the morning. She hears a half-elven voice call out. "Don't say anything, don't raise the alarm. Saffron is that you?" Saffron nods. Then, a few moments later, Bayka exits invisibility with a hefty swing that just misses her bow. Bayka's all kinds of fucked up looking. His skin has gone an ashen grey, his veins and pupil are glowing yellow light. And the soulstone in his armor is glowing stronger than ever.
It is the early morning of May 25th, 2000 A.F. This session took 9 days. Our heroes played this session at level 6, but just leveled up to level 7. Maven got a point of heroic favor healing people!
In this map, Yellow is the Northern Alliance, Red is the Western and Eastern Coalitions (which have basically banded together in a group called "The Guardians"), and Blue is the Dorians. You guys are just north of the "r" in Auger. Maven lived just south of the second "s" in Tessia.
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