Clearing the Halls
It is Day 955 as the Unlikely Assembly stands before an inner chamber, glowing with a pulsing field of purple-magenta bright enough to light the surrounding halls. They surmise that entry to the chamber will require 3 more ice shards, after they’d retrieved 1 such ice shard from the cathedral and inserted it into a slot in the door.
The faint sound of water hitting the ground shifts their focus to the enemies in the halls. Though they are exhausted from their artifacts deactivating after the large battle, they push forward. Following the hall to the left, clockwise around the inner chamber, they find more mephitis, except these are made of steam. Qarzdaq realizes they were just fighting the water-inspired enemies, and these creatures seem to be a cross between water and fire.
QARZ: We might be coming up on a room of fire magic…
Though the Steam Mephits are not immediately aggressive, Aran instructs the Children and Inventors to stay back to prevent their injury.
Aran charges in, killing one of them immediately. The reach with his guandao comes in handy, for as soon as he slashes through that creature, it exploded in a burst of steam. Aran proceeds to kill several more of the mephits, each of them exploding in the same way.
Qhortho rushes in alongside Aran, destroying a couple of them, taking the bursts of steam to the face as if it were a gift from the Horse God himself.
Qarzdaq shoots off a few transmuted bolts of cold towards a few of the enemies, causing them to burst into clouds of steam.
With a resounding bell, Farron assaults one of the creature’s will to live, causing it to burst into steam.
The remaining creatures attempt to fight back, spitting scalding steam at Aran and Qhortho. Aran strikes back, destroying the last few.
Continuing forward, they find more mephitis, though these appear to be formed of pure smoke.
As the party destroys these creatures, they explode into a cloud of smoke, heavily obscuring the area immediately around them. After just a couple of kills, Aran, Qhortho, and the remaining enemies are no longer visible to the rest of them. And Aran and Qhortho can’t see their enemies in front of their own faces…
QHOR: You think I’m stuck in this smoke with you, but you’re the ones stuck in this smoke with me!
With that spout of arrogance, a resounding clang of metal on stone reverberates in the halls.
QHOR: Fuck.
Immediately, one of the mephitis exhales a cone of smoldering ash, but Qhortho’s foresight provides him a split second more reaction time to evade the blast.
The sounds of attack continue until finally Qhortho and Aran emerge, coughing while wafting the smoke away.
As the smoke clears, ornate metal double doors, each 15 feet wide, become visible. This must be room of whoever commands the fire magic in this place.
Before attempting entry, they decide this is the time to prepare for the upcoming battle. With inspiration from the gods, they pray for the benefits of a long rest. It costs them some goodwill from the gods, but their request is granted without spending the 8 hours normally needed.
They open the Ioun portal and follow their procedure, sending Aran and the remaining allies through to collect all 20 Ironborn, 10 Night’s Watch, and 10 Winterfell soldiers. They leave behind the remaining Children of the Forest and Inventors.
Before moving forward, Qarzdaq recharged Farron’s ring with a Thunderball (thunder-transmuted Fireball).
An Old Foe
Aran pushes open the doors with so much force, the doors swing open against the friction of metal on stone, leaving a 10-foot gap between the doors.
The room before them is a very large, unlit, cylindrical room. The purple-magenta pulsing from the inner chamber behind them is the only way they can see the wide shallow trench running across the entryway.
Farron summons small motes of light around his head, ready to be sent towards any enemies that pop out of the darkness. He then lights up a small pebble and tosses it into the room, illuminating a 20-foot radius around the pebble.
The party sees the trenches carved into the floor in haphazard pathways. There appear to be a few slightly deeper troughs around the room where several of the trenches intersect.
The party proceeds forward cautiously, leading their allies across a shallow trench and towards the pebble.
The air inside this room feels very dry and stuffy. As they get about 20 feet into the room, they notice a glowing magenta rectangular chamber in the center, perhaps a hundred feet away. The small chamber resembles the force field that protected Tyrone from their attacks in the cathedral.
Suddenly, the entry doors slam shut behind them. They all instinctively look behind them at the doors, noticing an opening for an ice shard, with none present. They surmise that they will need to collect this shard to leave this room; they need to get inside that force chamber.
A moment later a shrill voice fills the room without an identifiable source.
VOICE: The Unlikely Assembly… You stupid motherfuckers… I don’t think you even realize what you set in motion so long ago.
A humanistic form appears inside the small chamber in the center of the room and its glow takes on a reddish hue.
VOICE: I was NEVER the threat. It was ALWAYS Tyrone. Then YOU came along and decided my fate. I’ve been waiting for this day for some time. Today… I am the threat… and today… I decide YOUR fates.
Qhortho and Qarzdaq now recognize this must be Andrea Redmess, brought back from the dead.
With a wave of her arms, the ceiling begins to glow red through three openings 80 feet above, each 10 feet by 10 feet wide. These holes begin to glow bright orange as lava begins to fall from them, providing a bright red-orange light around the room. They can now see every inch inside this room, which must be close to 300 feet in diameter.
Just as all four of the Assembly’s artifacts begin to glow, helical light emerges from Andrea’s hands in four strands, each sent towards one of the Assembly. Only Qhortho and Aran are hit and both take necrotic damage.
As the lava falls, glowing Giant Fire Beetles and Magma Mephits emerge from the lava, flying near the ceiling. Once the lava strikes the ground, it runs along the floor trenches throughout the chamber. As the lava spreads through the trenches, Fire Snakes, Firenewt Warriors, and bloodthirsty Kobolds form from the heat mirages above the flowing lava.
The Assembly knows right away that they cannot get within about 10 feet of the lava without taking damage.
With the power of the Ironborn on their side, their attacks take on water damage, which all of the fire creatures are vulnerable to.
Farron casts Haste on Aran, who then rushes into the fight just as Qarzdaq brings down a thunder-infused meteor swarm. The meteor swarm destroys most of the enemies in the room.
Andrea launches several more tendrils at the allies, while Qhortho engages the kobolds. Turns out these things bite and drain their victim’s maximum health!
The allies attack, killing Andrea unleashes sheets of roaring flame, sweeping across most of the allies, destroying a large swath in one attack. Fire Elemental Myrmidons and Fire Elementals emerge from the sheets of fire, while more Giant Fire Beetles and Winged Fire Kobolds emerge from the source of the lava falls.
The battle continues with the Assembly destroying more and more of their enemies while their list of fallen allies grows.
Andrea launches more of her light tendrils, killing another ally just as more enemies emerge from the pools of lava where they impact the ground. This time, there are Fire Giants, Nightmares, and a young Red Dragon with some sort of glowing gold metal attached to its scales.
Qhortho’s eyes go wide at the sight of the young dragon.
QHOR: Daddy needs a new pair of shoes!
Farron launches a Thunderball into a group of enemies, killing several.
The Assembly and their remaining allies continue to destroy their enemies, but their side takes heavy losses. With all of their allies dead, they are dangerously diminished in terms of offensive resources.
Besides dealing with Andrea somehow, there only remain 15 Fire Beetles, 4 Winged Kobolds, 2 Fire Snakes, 1 Firenewt Warrior, 1 Fire Giant, 4 Nightmares, and the young Red Dragon. And a few of these creatures are very badly injured.
Farron realizes that Banishing the biggest threats is their best option right now, but it’s risky. He takes aim at the Fire Giant, 2 Nightmares, and the young Red Dragon. Immediately, the Fire Giant and 2 Nightmares, disappear. For a moment, it seemed not to succeed on the dragon, but Farron’s godly inspiration gave him the edge to force the dragon into disadvantage.
FARR: We have one minute before they come back!
ARAN: Let’s deal with these little guys and take any potions we need so we can work together to take down each of the bigger guys when they return!
We end this session, still on Day 955. The mephit battles outside Andrea’s room yielded 75 XP for each member of the Assembly; the creatures they’ve slain inside Andrea’s room will be counted if the Assembly live through this battle.