Session 33

It’s a Trap

As The Fated Eight prepared for battle, they were surrounded by five pale, white-furred, displacer beast-like creatures called Vanisher Beasts. Aurevald, in his haste to attack the Vanisher Beast in front of him, swung his weapon. Just before Aurevald hit the Vanisher Beast, Azriel was suddenly transported to where the creature was, and the creature appeared where Azriel had been. Seeing this, The Party discovered that the Vanisher Beasts have some sort of teleportation ability.

Aurevald, already putting his full might into the swing, hit Azriel. The attack connected, causing Azriel to succumb to the blow. As the rest of The Fated Eight battled the other Vanisher Beasts, they realized that moving near these creatures was harder than it should be, and that somehow these creatures have some form of gravitational power radiating from them.

As the battle continued, Azriel was able to slightly recover from his wound thanks to help from Morgyn. The members of The Fated Eight used whatever they could to hit these Vanisher Beasts as they constantly swapped places with party members, until one Vanisher Beast was able to land a vital blow on Morgyn, putting her at death’s door. Aurevald, seeing his longtime partner injured, rushed to her aid while throwing his axe toward the creature, cutting three of its tendrils off. It spewed out silvery blood as it bled out, allowing Aurevald to stabilize Morgyn.

As The Party kept fighting, Azriel, with Zarkadyne’s help, was able to hit one of the Vanisher Beasts with a mass of lightning, evaporating it from existence. As this was happening, Zarkadyne, while staring into a mirror, taunted Azriel for needing his help. Immediately after this, all the remaining Vanisher Beasts turned and blinked to attack Azriel. As the first of the three remaining Vanisher Beasts lunged, it impaled itself on Azriel’s icy armour, which shattered it instantly. As another Vanisher Beast struck Azriel, he used his Fey magic to teleport out of danger.

With the Vanisher Beasts using everything to target Azriel, Lady was able to capitalize on this moment to finish off another one by using her thunder form to put a fist-sized hole through its abdomen. The final Vanisher Beast, seeing itself surrounded, decided to retreat with Cindrethrax’s help as it jumped into a portal that formed on the floor.

Deeper into the den

With the battle seemingly over, The Fated Eight took a second to comprehend what had just happened. Morgyn, fascinated by the Vanisher Beasts, harvested one of their pelts. Aurevald curiously inspected the shimmering blood left on his axe. Kezark hastily inspected the fireplace, burning himself, and SHAI was able to find two items that had fallen off one of the Vanisher Beasts’ collars; a Bead of Refreshment and Dust of Sneezing and Choking. SHAI also found a note, which he read to the rest of The Party:

740
1590, Fading Arsenyr, II (glowing a pale blue)

My visits to the Seelie Court have been a resounding failure. It is shameful as business on Tahl’Lethys calls me away at the worst time.

My only instructions were to meet a man in white mask - how gauche?

Allexander

Azriel, realizing his mistake, swapped the twisted and blonde roses on the dials. Immediately after doing this, the dials began to spin, creating some form of projection. In the centre was a tall man taking in his appearance as he stared into a mirror. On the outside was a blonde man holding a sword, pacing around the edge, and in the middle was a large feline head that always floated between the two other images—until suddenly, the blonde figure vanished and appeared next to the tall figure, causing the feline head to disappear.

As this happened, a wall next to the fireplace suddenly opened. The Party made their way down this hallway until they reached a magically altered room that contained four doors: two on the left and two on the right. Azriel suggested that it might be wise to turn back, but in doing so, he was taunted by Zarkadyne:

“You’re a coward, and the son of a whore…”
- Zarkadyne

Azriel immediately reacted, walking to the second door on the right and trying to open it. The Party walked to the first door on the left. As Kezark first approached, a barrier appeared; then, as SHAI approached, the barrier seemed to weaken as SHAI walked through. Kezark tried to follow, but unlike SHAI, walked into this barrier. SHAI, seeing this, walked back to see if Kezark was okay.

Aurevald, after investigating the second door on the left, reported to the rest of The Party that it is some kind of cell. As Aurevald reached the first room, his runes began to glow with power, realizing he too can cross the barrier. SHAI, seeing this, discerned that only those with Fey ancestry can cross the barrier—this came as a shock to everyone, especially Aurevald.

Room 1

Both Aurevald and SHAI walked through the barrier and conversed about how Aurevald was feeling after finding out he had Fey ancestry. Aurevald, unsure, said it was best to focus on the task ahead.

As they walked into the first room, they saw two desks in a dark and decrepit room with a book at one desk. The book was written in the Sylvan language. As SHAI cast Comprehend Languages; Aurevald investigated the room for any recent activity, finding none. However, as Aurevald paid close attention to the chairs in the room, he realized that they were mimics just as they transformed and tried to attack SHAI and Aurevald. Aurevald grabbed SHAI as they retreated out of the room away from the mimics.

SHAI, after escaping the danger of the mimics, completed his Comprehend Languages spell and read the note that he had taken out to the rest of The Party:

“I was returning from a supply run when two Harpies descended upon me. I thought for a moment I was going to be their dinner when a strange man appeared - the next moment I had swapped places with him. He slew both of them with a single swipe of his crescent blade.

My Wife thinks I’m just exaggerating to make my Son behave, but I owe Zarsh my life. I’m thinking of offering my support for his cause. He mentioned he needs help taming some pets that he’s bred. If I earn his trust, maybe he’d help cure my Wife of her afflictions.”

Sael

Room 2

Some of The Party moved over to the first door on the right-hand side. As the members investigated the room, they saw a large, dark, and dank library. Morgyn, Jin, Lady, and Kezark entered the room. Morgyn searched the room to find some form of alchemical ingredient; instead, she found a note that looked to be some sort of report and read it out to The Party:

Experiment Log ___
Subject retained greater sanity and control whilst gaining enhanced abilities. Baseline dosage increased to 5 drops per hour for 1 day. Explore using crushed Gyi’Gantos bone as a re-agent for further stability.

While the rest of the members investigated around the bookshelf, they heard some sort of ruckus on top of it, which caused an endless tankard to be knocked off. Lady was able to catch it before it hit the ground. Jin and Kezark, using rations, tried to coax out whatever was on top of the bookshelf with success, as three small displacer beast kittens appeared.

One of the kittens approached Jin while the others hung back. As it approached the ration, it devoured it. Lady and Kezark offered rations as well; the kittens took the rations and hid back atop the bookshelf. One kitten instead ran out the door and up to Azriel, who was standing by the second door on the right. Azriel picked up the kitten as it nuzzled him.

Just before Lady left the room, one of the kittens seemed to fall off the bookshelf. Lady’s quick reaction allowed her to catch it, and she continued to hold onto it. The kitten’s brother, not wanting to be left behind, jumped down onto Kezark’s head and bounced onto Jin’s shoulder as everyone left the room.

Room 3

SHAI and Aurevald entered the prison cell discovered earlier. As they walked in, they saw a small prison cell with a puddle of blood and a tankard with a suspicious liquid on the floor. Aurevald defensively used his Divine Sense to try and sense for any unknown presences in the room, but he was unable to even sense himself in the cell. SHAI sensed that the blood was magically cursed. SHAI and Aurevald saw a message in blood on the wall written in Sylvan. SHAI, who could still read it, read it out loud to Aurevald:

“I don’t know what is happening to me. I was supposed to be cured - but my head feels like it’s splitting.”

“Why do I have wings? What did he do to me???”

“I’m seeing double of everything…”

“Something is trying to bury its way out of my torso…”

After this, Aurevald noticed that outside the cell doors were two dead Fey bodies that appeared to be in stasis. Aurevald tried to reach them by putting his hands through the cell door. As he touched the bars, he realized they were deadly cold—if anyone else had touched the bars, they would have been harmed.

Unable to reach the bodies, Aurevald decided it was best to leave. On the way out, Aurevald dipped his fingers in the blood to bring it to Jin. SHAI picked up the tankard to bring it out to Morgyn.

As Aurevald and SHAI rejoined the others, they noticed that the puddle of blood left a trail to the final door. As they arrived, SHAI gave the tankard to Morgyn, who was able to tell that the fluid had a corrupting component and a reagent component. Morgyn decided to put the sample in a vial.

At the same time, Aurevald wiped the blood onto Jin’s sword, causing Jin to have a vision of a pregnant Fey lady drinking, alongside a tall, 9-foot-5, black-haired Fey man. The woman drank the fluid that was in the tankard and immediately keeled over in pain. The Fey man responded:

“I should have warned you, the process is going to be quite painful.”
- The Fey Man

He then gently pushed her into the cell before closing the door.

Room 4

As everybody joined Azriel, who was trying to unlock the fourth door, Azriel noticed that the kitten that came to him had a key on its collar. Azriel took the key and was able to open the door. Inside, The Party saw a dark, descending staircase. The Party noticed that the blood trail continued down this staircase.

Azriel, impatient, walked down the staircase while the rest of The Party followed him, with only Azriel’s sword glowing to provide light. As The Party reached the bottom, they came to an open wooden room. In the centre of the room were two decaying bodies: one of a Fey woman with wings who was holding a key in one hand and had written “Zarsh lies” on the floor, while across from her was a hairless feline creature. On the other side of the room was a locked door. The Party discerned that the feline creature had burst out of the woman.

Seeing this, The Party cautiously approached. Aurevald noticed through a hole in the floor that this room was suspended above a large chasm. As they got closer to the bodies, a large roar filled the room, sending some members to their knees and scaring the kittens, who ran down through the opening in the floor.

Azriel, while recovering from the roar, was taunted by Zarkadyne:

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Wouldn’t it be a shame if the little kitty got lost? Or worse, hurt? Be a brave boy and go follow after it, my dear Azriel.”\
- Zarkadyne

As he spoke, the key magically flew out of the woman’s hand and into the door, unlocking it.

Into the den

The Party looked through the door and again saw a descending staircase that no light could illuminate. Aurevald dropped a coin down the staircase as The Party heard it bounce off every stair. The Party journeyed down the staircase as it led into a large cavern, where the only light source came from a projection of the night sky on the ceiling of the cavern.

The Party saw a large, slumbering feline creature at the other end of the cavern—large enough to smother any one of them with its paw. The Fated Eight all knew that this was the slumbering beast mentioned in Allexander’s journal entries. Azriel suddenly heard Zarkadyne in his ear again, saying:

“Oh my—Cindrethrax has gotten smaller since I last saw him. Keeping me in a pocket dimension must be exhausting work. If you want to kill me, you’ll need to get through him first. If you’re just going to die—please do it quickly so I don’t get my hopes up. I’d move swiftly if I were you—it looks like he’s about to wake up…”
- Zarkadyne

Battle with Cindrethrax

Azriel, understanding what he must do, launched forward, charging toward Cindrethrax as he put distance between himself and The Party. As Azriel got close to Cindrethrax, four Vanisher Beasts emerged from portals, seemingly focused on Azriel.

With the Vanisher Beasts focusing on Azriel, the rest of The Fated Eight mobilized to help him. Kezark attacked a Vanisher Beast, activating its teleport ability and moving Azriel further away from Cindrethrax. Aurevald rushed to Azriel’s side to defend him. During this, Cindrethrax opened his starry eyes and focused his gaze on SHAI, who was magically enhancing Azriel. Cindrethrax attempted to teleport SHAI but failed. Because of this, a Vanisher Beast targeted SHAI, knocking him into the wall and causing him to drop his concentration. The magical backlash hindered Azriel, allowing two Vanisher Beasts to pounce on him while the other Vanisher Beasts dealt with Lady.

The battle continued as The Fated Eight kept attacking, struggling with the Vanisher Beasts’ ability to swap places with them. Eventually, Cindrethrax—who didn’t seem able to put his all into this fight—created a black hole in the centre of the cavern that was constantly pulling The Party toward it. At the same time, Cindrethrax took the opportunity to position one of the Vanisher Beasts in a more advantageous location.

Aurevald, seeing Azriel fall, picked him up and moved him closer to Cindrethrax. As this happened, Kyot lost his footing and was sucked into the black hole, disintegrating instantly. The Vanisher Beasts took advantage of this black hole, attacking The Party members who were struggling to deal with its gravity. Azriel took advantage of the Vanisher Beasts attacking him and used his Fey magic to teleport closer to Cindrethrax, where he noticed that Cindrethrax had a way of stopping teleportation around himself. Azriel climbed Cindrethrax and performed a crescent moon slash on one of Cindrethrax’s tendrils, wounding him. Zarkadyne chimed in as this happened, telling Azriel:

“Even with the blade, he’s too well defended down low—you might want to try stabbing between the eyes.”
- Zarkadyne

Giving Azriel a path forward, Cindrethrax responded to being wounded by swiping Azriel away with his giant paws, sending Azriel back down to the floor. During this, the rest of The Fated Eight battled the Vanisher Beasts to keep them away from Azriel. Morgyn used her new item to put an impenetrable barrier around the black hole to protect The Party. Cindrethrax reacted to this by removing the black hole and turning the battlefield floor into a starry night.

Kezark, able to take advantage of a Vanisher Beast that had been stunned earlier in battle, was able to kill it with a shot to the head. Immediately after, Kezark and Morgyn’s positions were swapped as portals beneath their feet teleported them.

Cindrethrax, angry with the death of one of his kin, raised his tendrils, emitting silver blasts of energy that hit the entire party. This caused SHAI, Morgyn, and Azriel to succumb to their wounds, while some of the others were momentarily paralysed. Aurevald, seeing his wounded teammates, charged up a spell, his arm runes glowing as he aided Azriel, SHAI, and Morgyn, bringing them back from death’s door.

The Vanisher Beasts aimed to capitalize on this moment as one of them brought Kezark to death’s door while the other two launched forward toward Azriel. As one of the Vanisher Beasts attacked Azriel with its tendrils, a shadowy Fey arm emitted from Azriel holding a mirror. As the tendril hit the mirror, it turned the attack back on the Vanisher Beast, stunning it. Zarkadyne then taunted Azriel, saying that he needed to hurry up. The other Vanisher Beast saw this and decided to go for Aurevald instead.

Azriel, able to steel himself after the attack with the help of Jin, launched himself up to Cindrethrax’s shoulder. From there, he climbed to Cindrethrax’s head and thrust his sword between the eyes of the great beast.

Decisions and consequences

Before Azriel further thrust his sword into the great beast, he hesitated, thinking to himself that this might not be the right path to take. Because of his hesitation, Zarkadyne piped up to encourage Azriel to keep going.

Zarkadyne: “Oh, you’re doing so well! Don’t you want to kill me? Hurry up.”

Azriel: “Why do you need Cindrethrax gone?”

Zarkadyne: “Isn’t it obvious? I’m trapped inside him. We had a disagreement a long time ago, and he punished me, and I punished him back. But I had an ace up my sleeve: whatever fool managed to breed long enough to create you. And now, it is time for you to finish the job.”

Azriel, after hearing these words, hesitated, realizing that killing Cindrethrax was exactly what Zarkadyne wanted. As Cindrethrax let out a huge roar, silvery blood ran down from the wound. Azriel, needing to make sure he wasn’t being manipulated, sought confirmation:

Azriel: “If I kill this beast, you break the pact?”

Zarkadyne: “Oh, that was always part of the deal. Thank you for making it obvious. Once you go through with this, our deal is done. I hope you’ll still hunt me, though.”

Azriel: “Don’t worry, your time will come.”

Azriel thrust his weapon deep into Cindrethrax as he recalled how chaotic his life had been since obtaining these powers. The blade seemed to fit into a slot in the beast’s forehead before Cindrethrax threw Azriel off his head.

Black ooze began to pour out of the wound. The ooze turned into a collection of insects before they coalesced into the body of a 9-foot-5 Fey man with curly black hair and yellow feline eyes. He was dressed in elegant clothes with a set of insect-like wings, and six displacer beast tendrils wrapped around his waist.
Zarkadyne: “Oh my gods, it feels so good to be free!”

Zarkadyne, the Thorn had been freed.

Hello Crimson Temp—Oh wait, sorry, that’s the last group… Hello, Fated Eight! I am Zarkadyne, the Thorn—beloved patron of your dear friend Azriel. Please, I’d love to make your acquaintance properly.”\
- Zarkadyne

Zarkadyne The Thorn

As Zarkadyne scanned the room, looking at the members of The Fated Eight, he turned his gaze toward Lady and offered her a deal to become his new warlock. Lady responded that she was strong enough on her own, leading Zarkadyne to make a comment about everyone having “daddy issues.”

As Zarkadyne was talking to The Fated Eight, he was constantly teleporting around them—always staying in their blind spots and keeping his back turned to Azriel. Azriel, filled with anger as his long-time enemy was finally right in front of him, cast Misty Step with the Aterenus Falx in hand and went to strike Zarkadyne, who was currently admiring his appearance in a mirror.

As Azriel glanced at Zarkadyne’s reflection, he saw Zarkadyne’s true form: a man covered in fur with a twisted face. Zarkadyne, having baited the attack from Azriel, moved his mirror into the path of the strike. The mirror reflected the attack back on Azriel, piercing his heart and killing him on the spot.

Zarkadyne, having completed his task, disappeared. Immediately, the cavern began to shake violently, and the starry sky above vanished—revealing thousands of stalactites ready to rain down upon The Fated Eight.

Final Moments

In Azriel’s final moments, for the first time in his life, he finally felt free—no longer weighed down by his anger and hate. During this brief respite, a voice resonated in his mind. It was Cindrethrax:

Cindrethrax: “It seems we were both deceived.”

Azriel: “Who are you?”

Cindrethrax: “Who do you think I might be? Your only chance at a second chance. We both hate Zarkadyne.”

Azriel: “We do.”

Cindrethrax: “I cannot bring you back, but if your friends do… the sword was once part of my body. Returning it will revive me—restore me. If you do that, I will give you the power to end this thorn in our side forever.”

Azriel: “What makes you think you have that power?”

Cindrethrax: “Hmm, the deal is yours. You decide if you want to die or live. If you don’t do it for yourself, do it for your friends.”

Azriel: “Agreed.”

Meanwhile, the rest of The Fated Eight watched in horror as the cavern crumbled around them and the remaining Vanisher Beasts fled. Aurevald rushed toward Kezark to stabilize him. Jin pulled Azriel’s body closer to Cindrethrax while Morgyn examined him, concluding that only powerful revival magic could save his life.

Desperate, Aurevald called out to ask if anyone had a way to bring Azriel back. SHAI used his magical whistle to grant Morgyn the necessary power. Jin pulled the Aeternus Falx from Azriel’s chest, immediately feeling a magnetic tug drawing the blade towards Cindrethrax. Morgyn placed a diamond into the wound left by the sword and cast Revivify. The gemstone dissolved, transmuting from rock into living flesh and blood, pulling Azriel back from the brink of death.

Azriel shot back to life, immediately stood, and took the sword from Jin. Following the supernatural pull, he moved toward Cindrethrax and guided the blade toward one of the beast’s broken teeth. Azriel slotted the sword into the tooth—Cindrethrax growling in pain until the blade seated fully into place.

The moment the tooth was restored, the gravity in the cavern intensified dramatically, pinning The Fated Eight to the floor. Cindrethrax began to swell in size, the ceiling stabilized, and the celestial projection of the starry sky illuminated the cavern once more.