Session 54
The perilous paths before Peach and Orianna led towards a weapon that could save Elira. Dax’s footsteps, however, dogged the call of curiosity, a siren’s tune that could sever a cat’s nine lives, leaving Mack adrift in fate’s sprawling eddies. Betwixt the diverging torrents, Aydriann and Ember found themselves riven, the tumultuous currents pulling their family asunder.
The glacial crawler leaped out of the ground and with its stinger tail, lunged at Dax quickly to strike in one fell swoop. Dax quickly cast the tomb of Levistus that shielded himself in a block of ice. It worked as the monster wasn’t able to penetrate the ice block leaving Dax unfazed.
Ember seized an opportunity and casted banishment that sent the glacier crawler back to the domain of Noite, Oblivion Lake. Things were peaceful for the time being. Figuring out where the weapon Sol is was on everyone’s mind. Ember casted locate weapon to see which direction Sol was. This came at the cost of destroying her own weapon, a star knife.
Exploring the cavern led to a tunnel the glacial crawler made which led to a shortcut in the trail. Everyone grouped up and proceeded slowly down another tunnel with Orianna leading the way.
Orianna peered cautiously around a darkened corner, her breath quickening as her eyes beheld the eerie azure glow of lifeless eyes staring back at her. A deathly chill permeated the shadowy cavern.
“At last, the time has come,” a raspy voice intoned. “Step forth, and be judged as worthy.”
“Who are you, Identify you self”, an ancient resolve is produced through Mack’s voice.
“I’m the winter herald Kervoite”, this creature of undead says with a deep booming voice.
Melina dashed past Orianna, her countenance resolute. This was her chance to make a difference, to succeed where she had failed before, when her own kin had perished. She spared a glance back at Orianna, silent communication passing between them - a plea to prove her worth, to show she could be an asset, not a hindrance, to the group. She would not be dismissed or turned away this time, not when so much was at stake. Even if it meant to pay the ultimate price, to allow those who carried her brother, a chance, a glimmer of hope, to step forward and fix the world, Melina would bow to the icy tendrils of fate’s unyielding grasp. Melina would fall.
A moment was all that was needed to gain purchase within the cavernous expanse, the sight that greeted Orianna and her companions enough to give even the stoutest heart pause.
An aura of undeath clung to the pale, blue-tinged figure that stood before them, his eyes glowing with a deep, soul-wrenching melancholy. Stark white hair contrasted sharply with the dark, unkempt facial hair that framed a face etched with an ancient sorrow.
This was no mere man, but a being who commanded the very essence of the cavern, his sturdy frame radiating an unnatural power. “Weak, unworthy of the weapon,” he growled, his voice a sepulchral rumble. “A culling of your herd.”
His words dripped with disdain, his gaze sweeping over them as if they were but insignificant insects. “I’ll show her, Noite,” he muttered, almost to himself. “I will show her the winter’s night, for it embraces the failures, gives them clarity in a world frozen, void of any persecution, void of any Syn Trials, void of any house of Tradxina.”
He gestured grandly, the very shadows seeming to coalesce at his command. “Rise, embrace the night, void of the sun.”
The cavern stirred with a palpable sense of excitement, the fallen denizens eager to share the tale of their failed trials. A testament that all was not as it seemed, that the true nature of this place extended far beyond what the mortal eye could perceive.
Melina’s body twitched, a dark presence hovering over her that was not lost on the keen senses of Ember and Orianna. Even Peach, long shielded from such esoteric forces, now began to glimpse the divine essences at play. A silent battle was being waged as Melina’s body became still, the struggle against the pull of the grave.