The Heart of Corruption
Dramatis Personae:
Oryn Talus, the mysterious and ancient "Halfling" who has employed the group
Aurora Isilime, the Valley Elf Bard; "The Silver Tongued Siren;" who has more instruments than she can carry, and sings to things she shouldn't
Pharin Braz'Dracon, the Half Brass Dragon, Half Drow Wizard; "The Dark Conjurer;" summoner of demon bunnies, and Andolin's twin
Skye Vindhalle, the Air Genasi Druid and saver of demon bunnies
Dervish, the Kasathe Fighter
Nanu, the NightmOrc Fighter who is late, slayer of innocent bystanders
Pimbin, the Halfling Shadow Monk of Nerull and Starlock of Y'Chuk
Willow Liadon, the Eladrin Rogue, summoner of elephants
Willow Liadon, the Eladrin Rogue, summoner of elephants
Lan El'Mandragoran, the Human Paladin of Pelor
Lothar, the Sovani Smith and semi-Cleric of Moradin, High Priest of Lolth, Cleric of Istus, forced Cleric of Asmodeus; wielder of the Sword of Kas
Aeryn and Aerys Shayl, the Human Ranger twins
Aerathema, the Wood Elf Druid
Ralliakkan, the Drow Rogue
Andolin Braz'Dracon, the Half Brass Dragon, Half Drow Fighter/Ranger, and Pharin's twin
Narg, there's really no way to describe Narg, Narg is just Narg
Haasenpfeffer, the giant positive energy bunny that Pharin regularly tries to summon
Comrades we have lost:
Jayce, the Human Barbarian- killed by Josiah
Jarrid, the Human Barbarian- killed by Pharin, Pimbin, Andolin, and Dervish during Kester Championship
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Aurora's perspective. Anything in italics is from a third person
***** The Heart of Corruption
The tiny fireball sped through the empty streets on a path that had been designated long ago. It wasn't easy to keep up with, but we managed. Finally, after what felt like forever, it arrived at another completely in tact building, and began bumping against the side of it, trying to gain entry. We found the switch for this building on a pillar, and as soon as the door was cracked enough for the ball to fit through, it zipped away again. Inside this building was another set of winding stairs, and the ball was zooming down them. This staircase was even longer than the last one, and it took forever to reach the bottom.
Pharin demanded I hand over my ring the moment we got down there. If he hadn't had my best interests at heart, I would not have given it to him, but I was sure his intentions were good. However, before I could give Pharin my ring, a tentacle sprang out of the Heart and grappled me. Instead of helping free me, Pharin took my ring and breathed fire on it- nothing happened. I managed to break free of the tentacle on my own, and noticed that Nanu and Lothar were both running from the Heart, terrified; we really should have waited for Lan.
For some reason, Pharin never bothered to look at the scroll Lothar had given him before dragging us down here. To his surprise, when he unfurled it he discovered it was not in a language he could read; idiotic wizard. It turns out that Dervish is the only one of us who can actually read the stupid scroll, and since he isn't a mage, he had to act as a translator for Pharin instead. the boys put a Hut around themselves, midair, and began working on figuring out the spell.
Each stone in the two rings had a corresponding pillar within this room for it. There was a specific element required for each stone too: fire, ice, lightning, thunder, radiant, and force. The problem was that the ring was tainted, and so they couldn't tell by the color of the gems which element went to which stone. Plus, Ralliakkan had one of the rings, and she wasn't with the party. Pharin told her he needed the ring, hoping she would get there in time. Ralliakkan had felt herself becoming tainted, and she went to Narg for help; at that moment Narg and Aerathema were working on cleansing the drow. Pharin melted the metal off of the ring so that only the stones remained, then called for Lothar, thinking the priest could cleanse the stones of their taint.
While Pharin and Dervish were having their powwow in the Hut, leaving the actual work to the rest of us, the fight wasn't going too well. Willow and Nanu had both been grappled by tentacles, and only the nightmorc had managed to free herself from its grasp. The Heart seemed to know what Pharin and Dervish were up to, and one of its tentacles lashed out at their floating Hut, knocking it back about forty feet. Nanu seemed to have entered a cycle of get grappled, break out, get grappled again, break out again; if the situation wasn't so chaotic I would have written a silly song about how absurd the sight was. Lothar began heading toward Pharin and Dervish, and was snatched by a tentacle; he responded like a true cleric, he prayed. A solar answered his prayers, and lashed out at the tentacle, making the Heart howl in pain and rage.
Safely in the Hut, Pharin decided to begin experimenting with the stones, and channeled a powerful radiant blast through them, killing Aurora instantly. The bard began battling the Heart for her soul; if she lost, Roe would become a puppet of the Heart, nothing more than an empty husk inhabited by evil. Just then a portal opened up, revealing Narg and Ralliakkan, holding a completely untainted ring; Haasenpfeffer was right behind them. It had taken the positive energy bunny on the positive energy plane to cleanse the ring and its bearer.
Since Aurora had fallen dead right at Nanu's feet, she reacted on pure instinct and raised Aurora from the dead. Her soul was in tact, but the evil had her in its grasp. The bard's eyes were completely black, a sign of possession by a great evil. The Heart forced Aurora, Nanu, and Willow to kill Dervish, since he was the only one capable of reading the spell; if they could kill him, they could save the evil from being cleansed.
Dervish tried to rally everyone to cleanse the pillars the stones needed to go on. Lothar's solar cleansed the column the staircase was in first; while the cleric beseeched one of his many patrons for aid. Lolth answered by covering the Heart in webs.
Pharin asked his bunny friend to cleanse the stones from Aurora's ring too; so the bunny turned into an epic solar, so blindingly brilliant it almost hurt to look at him. That horrid hare harmed my beautiful ring, removing the taint from it. I don't think I have ever been filled with so much rage as I was at that moment. The disdain I had felt for that bunny before was now a bubbling hatred, a rage that was completely consuming. I tuned out everything else and attacked Haas, he was the one who hurt my ring, and for that he had to die. Unfortunately I underestimated Haas in his new, less stupid body. The fucking rabbit blinded me. To make matters worse, the foul foal grabbed me from behind; but she forgot to cover my mouth, not that it would have mattered much anyway. I sang my spell that throws me through dimensions to a point near the column we had come down.
When I reached that point, still blinded, the stupid monk decided to get involved, and he grabbed me. Not that his grapple was that surprising, he is nothing more than Pharin's lackey, and if Pharin wanted me stopped, the moronic monk would try to stop me. Pimbin remembered to cover my mouth, but I'm not a mage, I can hum my spells without opening my mouth, all I need are the proper notes. I hurtled myself through dimensions again, this time putting myself in the staircase... I didn't realize the solar was cleansing it. I howled in pain, and turned that howl into that spell again, to get myself out of there before the radiant energy being poured into the column incinerated me.
Pharin decided that in order to beat this foe, he needed to be filled with positive energy; the drow used his body as a conduit to the energy plane, channeling Jayce. The Heart busied itself breaking free of the Spider Queen's webs; while her webs were strong, this was an evil stronger than Lolth- it was free in a matter of seconds. Lothar and his solar completed their work of cleansing the column that had just seared the bard. The Heart knew that it needed to get its foes away from it, so it used a force spell to push everyone away from it.
Lothar bowed his head in prayer again, and this time it was Moradin who answered the call. The God sent Lothar six ethereal dwarves to help cast the spell that would banish this evil. The Heart reacted angrily to that and lashed out tendrils at each dwarf; tendrils that took the form of the party members. Well, every party member except Aurora. At that horrifying sight, Pharin used the positive power coursing through him to take on his true form, the one his mother locked away: the form of the brass dragon. The wizard was not the only party member to take on a different form for the fight; Lothar merged himself with the solar he had summoned, and then vanished.
As the damned drow began pumping radiant energy into my new friend, Gollum, it responded by throwing up a barrier, making it so those jackasses couldn't hit us. The Heart began empowering me, giving me strength and increasing my magical abilities exponentially; it was like nothing I had ever felt before. If it wasn't for those dickheads trying to break down the barrier my friend put up, I would have basked in its power for ages. I used the power of my voice to force Dervish and Nanu to keep Pharin from breaking the barrier down. I reminded them that Pharin is the harbinger of destruction for this world, and they could not let him access this kind of power. It worked for a moment, and then Pharin wrenched my control away, ending the spell I had placed on them.
The Heart lashed its tendrils out, grappling Pharin, Dervish, Nanu, and Willow. It ripped Pharin through the barrier, while launching Willow across the room; it killed the fighters, though sadly it was only temporary. Pharin destroyed part of my friend's body with his vile radiant energy, The tendrils that had been lashing out at everyone since the battle began, started withdrawing, and surrounding me; merging with me, making us one. It was exhilarating! Now we just needed to kill Pharin and all would be well; I couldn't let that damned drow take this from me. Pharin began assaulting me, but with the aid of my friend he couldn't do much to me. I was invincible and felt amazing. I again charmed the fighters into trying to keep Pharin away from me, but that bastard kept dispelling my spells before they could hurt him; fuming from Pharin continuing to end my spells, the Heart killed Dervish and Nanu again. I hoped they would stay down this time so I could focus on killing Pharin, but Pimbin intervened, bringing Dervish back to life; Dervish in turn revived Nanu.
Pharin took matters into his own hands with the cleansing ritual and took over the work the ethereal dwarves had been doing,
In an attempt to keep us from killing Pharin, the foul foal rushed at us again; a simple lash with a tendril dropped the idiot again. If only she would just stay down. At that moment, Lothar returned, and seeing a dead Nanu, revived her with a tap of his hammer and an explosion of spiders; it was Lolth answering that revival prayer.
As Pharin completed the ritual, the Heart enveloped Aurora completely, then exploded outward. All of the corruption was gone, all that was left where the Heart had been was an unconscious, but very much alive, bard.
What the party didn't know, was that the Heart had left behind a seed of corruption in Aurora, and it was twisting her. A seed was also left in Dervish, which had been planted during one of his deaths; that seed would take longer to bloom, Dervish had not embraced the darkness as completely as Aurora had.
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