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Monday, June 18, 2018

Adventures in Oerth- The Bane of Vecna: Book Two, Chapter Eighteen

Vecna, the Petty


Dramatis Personae:
Aurora Isilime, the Valley Elf Bard of Valor, Maestro, Bae'qeshel and former Champion of Lolth, Lore Wizard, the Silver Tongued Siren, Knight of Summer
Charlotte, Aurora's violet Faerie Dragon familiar
Dervish, the Kasathe Brass Dragon Fighter and Dragon Blood Sorcerer, Knight of the Erl King
"Shadewing" Corvis Cairunis Umbrusalarim, the Shadow Elf Hexblade Warlock of the Raven Queen
Cloak, Shadewing's Empty Cloak familiar
Alfred, Shadewing's Raven familiar 
Zorack, the Elftaur Ranger Bounty Hunter and Knight of Winter
Gewnter, the Falcon Monk and Zorack's companion
Alucard, the ancient all powerful wizard; formerly Oryn Talus, the ancient and mysterious halfling who has employed the party; also know as Cinder, the ancient power that is said to destroy every world
Lan El'Mandragoran, the Human Paladin of Pelor
Aerathema, the Wood Elf Druid
Sil'ilos'anon Braz'Dracon, the "Drow" Warlock Blood Mage of Lolth, and the new DEATH
Elder Vish, Dervish's friend and mentor from his world, Knight of Spring

Comrades we have lost:
Narg, there's really no way to describe Narg, Narg is just Narg- sacrificed himself to aid the party
Ralliakkan, the Drow Rogue- killed by Lyathfikash
Mara Nemestk, the Human Champion- killed by the outside
Ceidil Rein, the Human Champion- taken by the outside, then killed by party
Eurydice, the Faerie Dragon Feylock- taken by the outside, then killed by party
Pharin Braz'Dracon, the Brass Dragon-Drow Conjurationist Wizard and Priest of Lolth- returned to Faerun
Andolin Braz'Dracon, the Brass Dragon-Drow Fighter/Beast Master- returned to Faerun
Lothar, the Sovani Smith and semi-Cleric of Moradin, High Priest of Lolth, Cleric of Istus, forced Cleric of Asmodeus; Kas Reincarnated - sacrificed to ressurect Alucard
Oryn Talus, the ancient and mysterious halfling who has employed the party- fractured himself into 4 parts to prevent cult from taking his soul
Willow Liadon, the Eladrin Arcane Trickster- sent to Elysium through a trap and was never heard from again

NOTE: Things will be mostly from Aurora's perspective. Anything in italics is from a third person, since the bard can't be everywhere at once.

***** Diamondice 20, CY 711, location unknown

       Before I could really get my bearings, Lord Dementor stepped out from behind a pillar in the massive, empty ballroom and demanded to know why we were here. Somehow we'd ended up in his personal domain, which I guess hadn't been his intent when he'd handed me a vial of blood? I guess that circle I made was even more amazeballs than I'd thought. Of course before we could talk to him, Dervish basically challenged him, demanding he send us back and help us fight.

       Dementor didn't think we needed to go back. He said he had everything here he needed, which led to Zorack challenging him, so he summoned a shitload of gold to prove it... Then Dumbass asked him to send that gold to his people, and Zorack followed that stupid request up by asking Dementor to give him powerful artifacts. I fucking hate those two. Dementor lifted Zorack into the air with magic, and flung him into a pillar- it was fucking hilarious. 

      Lord Dementor didn't care to help us because his realm was safe from time unraveling. I attempted to persuade him, but Dervish decided to talk over me and run his mouth... pissing Dementor off again. 

       Suddenly, Zorack and I were on the opposite side of the ballroom from Dementor and Dumbass and a shield was erected between us and them. He was going to show Dervish what we were up against, I'm not sure if it was to change his mind about us going back or teach him to be smarter or what, but I had a feeling this was going to be good. Things got smokey over there and several black holes opened. The black holes ripped Dervish apart nine times, and each time he was destroyed, Dementor just brought him back. This all took only a few seconds before the shield dropped and Dervish was limp on the ground; alive, but broken and miserable. He couldn't move for a few minutes, while Dementor lectured him on that's what we were up against. 

       After all of that, Dervish still insisted on sending us back. I was going to ask him to allow us to rest here first, since time passed differently here, we wouldn't be screwed by taking a quick nap. Of course, thanks to Dervish, instead we were just sent to the Table without getting to rest. I hate that idiot so much. 

       Back at the Table was the Raven Queen, Shadewing, Narg, and the first incarnation of Alucard. We needed Ralliakkan to finish off Vecna for good, but Narg needed to sleep on how to get her back without dire consequences. Alucard put us in his personal lair to rest, saying we could take all the time we needed. What made this place so incredible was that I wasn't anywhere near the idiots. I was in Alucard's library, and I didn't have to go into reverie to rest, I got to read. I found one book that talked about the special weapons we'd acquired, like the Spear, and their abilities. According to the story I'd found, if we took all of them to this forge we could create a super weapon to defeat the Devil- whichever devil that was. The forge sounded like the one in the Forgotten City, but slightly different. 

       When the rest was finished, we all met back up. Turns out Shadewing had found the forge we needed, it was the goat people's forge, sort of; it was in the City of Greyhawk, but we needed the goats to use it. They had been shunned by Ao for using the forge in the past, or something, so it would take some convincing I guess. We needed to get the Gunslinger to meet us there, and we needed the sword Ralliakkan had been using. The others thought Lord Dementor had it, since Ralliakkan was using it when Lyathfikash killed her. Zorack told Narg to go retrieve the sword, and Narg flipped out on him, telling him that he needed to get it himself. The idiot told Narg no, and then fell unconscious; Narg stormed off. We decided that Dervish and Shade would get the gun and the goats, and Zorack and I would get the sword. First we went to Greyhawk for Narg, but there was no sign of him. Then for some fucking reason, we decided we weren't splitting up, and went to the goats together. I fucking hate these guys.

       The goats were not happy to see us again, but who could blame them. Shade told them we had need of their smiths, and all the goats screamed and ran away from us. Dervish grabbed one of the goats, and it bucked him off. Then Zorack told them the mutton lover was back in peace. Shade then decided to try to speak to them through Ao... which killed ALL of them. Thankfully, Zorack seemed to have an abundance of Fate cards.

       This time, we stopped Shade from speaking. I very calmly explained to them that we needed their aid and why we needed it. As soon as I finished explaining everything, there was a knock at the door. A tall high elf in a dark cloak held out the sword to us in silence; when Dervish took it, the figure was gone. Things go so much smoother when they let me deal with the people side of things. The goats still didn't want to help us, they were scared and wanted to stay here and hide. Shadewing told them that Ao had forgiven them and they were safe to leave this place. As Shade spoke of Ao's forgiveness, Ao's blessing washed over them and they regained the power he'd stripped from them thousands of years ago. They immediately began preparations to aid us. 

       When the goats were ready, I teleported us all to the forge in Greyhawk. It started as a maze, but thankfully we figured that out quickly and got out; then the goats collected our weapons at the forge. As they stepped up to the altar, energy began swirling around them and they began to chant. It was an absolutely beautiful ritual that brought a tear to my eye. They were all moving closer and closer to the altar as they chanted, and the energy grew more brilliant in the process; it was like radiant, but more pure somehow. Upon reaching the altar, the youngest of them stripped and lied down, then each of the others hit him with a holy weapon. A brilliant flash of light blinded us all for a few seconds, and when it was gone, so were the goats. 

       A single golden beam shone down on the dais, that was nearly blinding, and sitting on the dais was a perfect sword. We told Dervish to grab it and see if it would let him wield it, but it zapped him and drained the strength from his arm. The Gunslinger told us that wasn't the God Sword we had thought it was, this was the Devil's sword, and none of us were evil enough to wield the fucking thing. We needed this sword, so Zorack and I prayed to Ehlonna to help us wield it, at the same time that Shade tried to mess with my fate somehow. 

       The hatred and rage I'd felt just days ago came flooding back to me, and I found myself imprisoned in my own mind. This Devil I'd read about had taken control of me. Luna vanished from my side, my Mantle fled, and the concentration rings I'd taken from the Drow and Duergar were suddenly on my fingers. The Gunslinger shot at me, missing, and the Devil responded by tapping the drum on my hip to activate my spirit guardians, which had turned back into the twisted Vale Elves, began swirling around me... him... I don't know how to really differentiate it. Zorack and Dervish both slashed at me and missed, but Shade stabbed me hard... but it didn't feel like it did much to me, and I felt my lips turn up into a twisted grin. 

       Then the Gunslinger ruined the Devil's fun by setting up an anti-magic field. So the Devil used the dance I'd learned as a Bae'qeshel to mesmerize everyone, and then everyone got encased in a block of ice. Must be something this Devil can do. The Gunslinger was in the air when the ice went off, so he instantly began to plummet. Dervish broke out of the ice first, then attacked the block the Gunslinger was trapped in, trying to free him. Shade and the Devil exchanged blows, and he managed to hurt me this time. The boys kept doing their best to get out of the ice and hurt me, but only Shade was actually doing any fucking damage. Eventually Shade managed to knock the Devil out, and then I began feeling my soul slip away... they'd killed me. 

       The Gunslinger had killed Aurora and begun an exorcism to get the Devil out of her. Shade then used a rod of resurrection to bring her back.

      That seriously sucked. And now I had no armor, because my Mantle was my armor, and Luna was gone. In trying to wield that sword I'd lost my two biggest tools in this fight. 

       Narg told us he had an idea about what to about the sword, but Dervish wouldn't like it. A few minutes later Alyssandra walked out of a portal, and told us we needed to leave. She and Narg would be doing a ritual to deal with this Devil- Lucifer they called him- that might kill them. They'd be putting Lucifer into the Gunslinger's body to deal with him, and they wouldn't give us anymore information about the ritual than that. Of course, as predicted, Dervish started flipping out, so Alyssandra sent him to the Feywild with a dimensional anchor so he couldn't come back and interrupt things. 

       About five minutes later, the Gunslinger appeared, in his usual gear, alone. When we asked about Narg and Alyssandra his shoulders slumped, but he wouldn't say anything more on it. While waiting, we'd gotten a lead on where Vecna might be, somewhere near the Forgotten City, so the Gunslinger got us to the gates, and I took us from there into the bunker. 

       I went straight to the war room, hoping the sensors would show us where Vecna was. The room was full of hundreds of plush toys... Sil had been here recently. I hummed and called my giant, spectral hand into being to push them off the map... the toys had souls in them. The ghosts aged the Gunslinger by over 100 years, and the toys attacked. The fluff was flying. Shade opened a shadow rift, hurting me in the process, and the Gunslinger destroyed the rest of them. 

       The map showed Vecna near the ancient city I'd found that Star in... and Y'Chuk near Greyhawk. We contacted Vish about this, and learned he'd been rallying the Gods, and was taking them to deal with the Outsiders. With that out of the way, we could focus completely on Vecna. 

       As we were preparing to leave to deal with Vecna, Alucard showed up. Upon his arrival, Zorack was suddenly covered in ice briefly as his Mantle flared to life, and Dervish's flared too. Shade suggested I try to spell to call a familiar to get my Mantle back, and I ended up getting a mini Titania familiar- she was not pleased, but I had my Mantle again. All three of the Queens were dead, but because they still had vassals they were able to come back. Shade asked the Raven Queen for aid, and she gave us all a boon that seemed to make us all-around better. 

       Alucard took us to the gates of the ancient city, and we were greeted to undead everywhere. This reminded me of the vision I had when I first found the Star, and as I quickly searched my memory, I realized where Vecna should be in the city. Zorack summoned several rhinoceroses to make a path for us, Shade set up some spell that hurt any undead near us, and I was flinging out storms of fire on them. When we reached the gates, Alucard tapped his staff, and a ton of them crumpled to dust. The gates had been completely destroyed, and Dervish spotted hundreds, if not thousands, of thri-kreen coming right at us. So Alucard rewrote time and sealed the gates. 

       The boys began blowing up the undead that were on our side of the gate, so I turned into an ancient red dragon and began breathing fire at them. It was fucking awesome. Alucard turned into an ancient silver dragon, and in the wake of us shadow ravens and radiant bunnies were frolicking and killing more undead. Then Shade showed me a shadow red dragon, which would make any who fell from my breath to rise as shadows under my control, which just made this more fun. When we were about a quarter mile away from the fortress I believed Vecna to be at, he dispelled my form. 

       Waiting for us at the fortress was Aeryn, Aerys, Nanu, Jarrid... and Jayce. My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach at the sight of him. Even though he was technically the enemy here, I could not bring myself to hurt him. Aeryn and Aerys shot at Dervish and I, hitting him, while I turned into a tarrasque. Dervish began peppering the twins with arrows of his own, while Zorack pulled out the slaying arrow... killing the nightmare part of Nanu, but leaving her torso alive. Somehow she managed to free her herself from her nightmare half and hit Zorack with a massive waraxe, disemboweling him. I took a step forward, hovering over Zorack's prone form with my massive tarrasque body to keep Nanu from doing anything more to him. Shadewing stepped out of my shadow and killed the rest of Nanu, and was hit by one of the twins as he slipped back into my shadow. I realized in that moment, that Alucard wasn't there. 

       Jayce and Jarrid started charging toward us, while Aeryn and Aerys kept launching arrows at Dervish. Some sickly-looking vines sprang from the earth and grabbed at us, but they didn't hold. I revived Zorack and smashed what was left of Nanu into paste with my tail, just to make sure the bitch wouldn't be getting back up. Zorack began returning fire to the twins, while Dervish pulled out all of my horns of Valhalla and sent a shitload of barbarians toward the castle. The windows in the castle exploded outward- I think we found where Alucard had run off to, and where Vecna was. Jayce and Jarrid finally reached Zorack's rhinos and made quick work of two of them, but the last one got lucky, and flung Jarrid. A couple of apes appeared where the rhinos had been and went for Jayce. I know he's our enemy now, but I still couldn't bare the thought of hurting him. The heart wants what it wants. 

       The Gunslinger aimed his gun, and Shade grabbed him, bringing them both to the castle. I heard his gun go off, and a scream of agony from Vecna echoed everywhere. 

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