Astvanor Session 129 (1/5)

[cinaed]

Session 129: Day 2 of Saedan (1/5)

There are four brilliant, almost blinding red and orange flashes surrounding the building.

Creatures begin hitting and pressing themselves against the windows, claws scratching and scrabbling at the glass as they try to get inside. Some are reddish, oil-slick looking things and there are those four reddish-orange swirls of rifts from another plane from which the creatures are pouring.

Everyone can fill the pulse of their tattoos in reaction to these tears between planes.

Hava looks at Yolov’s family. His parents are clutching at each other and Sestri has her arm tightly around Yolov as Asa comforts her and tells her that they’re in the safest place they can be, Yolov has protected her many times before.

Mhurla looks more nervous, gruffly telling them that Az isn’t always a fuck up.

Hava casts a Guardian of Faith before Yolov’s family, a spectral version of her father manifesting as divine protection. Then she summons a tentacle, which guards Yolov’s family as well from the other side.

Diana asks how to close the portals and Audacity tells her that she can’t. Yolov tells her to focus on the creatures, the rest of them can deal with the portals. She locks eyes on the creatures pressed against the closest window.

She runs and leaps through the window, smashing through it and landing directly before a hellhound. She pulls out her scimitars. The first slash lands across the creature’s shoulders and it half sinks to the ground with a shriek of pain. She hits it a second time, drawing out a gush of noxious blood from its throat as it looks badly injured.

Adrin rushes over as well and bellows out her cold breath at two hellhounds, two imps, and a demon. The demon seems resistant to the cold, who flaps its wings and hisses in Abyssal at Adrin and Diana.

Yolov passes his spell scroll of Rope Trick to Asa and tells Sestri that he’s not going to let anyone hurt them, but she needs to let him protect the inn. She tells him that if he gets hurt, she’ll kill him. He says he might get hurt, but he’ll be okay.

Asa reassures Sestri again that Yolov has protected her before and she’d trust him with her life and her family’s life. She holds up the Rope Trick and begins to instruct everyone on how to orderly climb up into a safe space.

Meanwhile Yolov rushes to a window, calling out that the shattering sound was a broken window in the kitchen and to be careful. Then he casts Wall of Ice and temporarily barricades the entire side of the inn, destroying two imps and badly injuring several hellhounds.

Meanwhile Mhurla tells Az that what Yolov’s hot sister said was right: if he gets hurt she’s going to kill him. Az tells her that he’ll be okay before he Misty Steps out of the inn and attempts to close the closest rift. He feels the mark on his hand goes cold and frigid. He understands it now more than he did before what Evie is and what’s happening. He also knows his sister is watching and pushes through the potential exhaustion to close the rift.

The portals pulse. Five more imps spill out of the portal in front of Yolov. Three imps spill out in the portal next to Diana as well. Another hellhound emerges as well. Three more emerge as well as a demon slips through the rift.

Audacity leaps through the window Diana broke and attempts to close that portal. He feels the cold lethargy burns him like frostbite all the way up his arm as the portal slowly closes. He feels winded as he kills an imp and a swarm of imps attack him.

The other imps scratch at the Wall of Ice, dealing it some damage, as the enormous demons rush towards Az and Audacity. One of them slams his foot into Az’s stomach, and he is knocked prone as he sees a long tail on the demon. The serrated tail whips forward and stabs him in the thigh, making him scream.

The other demon tries to do the same to Audacity. Its tail flicks with lightning as it kicks him as well. Audacity manages to stay upright, bracing against the kick to his stomach. The tail stabs into him as a hellhound lunges and bites Az.

Az teleports up onto the roof, trying to keep out of reach.

The hellhounds on the other side also begin to bite and scratch at the wall. They destroy much of the ice wall with the flames dripping from their maws. A few of them push through the frigid air left behind by the destroyed ice, some instantly destroyed, and one snarling directly in Yolov’s face at the window. There is the smell of rot and sulfur and burning.

Yolov looks out and sees many more hellhounds arrayed behind it.

Galowen looms at Yolov’s shoulder and looks at the hellhounds. He closes the window as the hellhound chews at the glass before he lifts his sword and casts Ice Storm down upon them all.

A hailstorm pummels down with precision, impaling all the imps with ice shards. The ground becomes slick with ice. One hellhound dies instantly, two look like they’re barely hanging on, and the rest are riddled with ice shards.

Hava looks between the two groups before heading towards the kitchen to face off against the creatures entering through that broken window. She stands before her spectral father as she casts Spirit Guardians and moves her spectral tentacle outside.

Diana and Adrin rush towards the demon that hurt Audacity, taking damage from one of the imps. Adrin feels a little prick as the imp shrieks and fails to poison her. Diana tells her to get off her sister before she breathes acid in a thirty foot cone, hitting two demons and an imp. The imp is killed instantly, skin dissolved off the bone, as the two demons scream in agony, looking terribly burned and blistered.

Adrin bites the nearest demon, but her poison takes no effect and it leans back to kick her.

Yolov looks at Galowen and tells him that he’ll try to take as many of the hellhounds out and then close the portal after that if Galowen can handle the rest. Then he casts Shatter, an intense roar of thunder that explodes the heads of six hellhounds outside, sending blood and gore and bone spraying everywhere and leaving one badly injured but still standing.

Galowen gives Yolov a long look before giving him a thumb’s up.

Up on the roof, Az attacks the demon headed towards Audacity. Two of his eldritch blasts miss, but the third hits and sends the demon tumbling backwards and yelling at him in Abyssal.

The two remaining portals pulse again and spill out more imps, demons, and hellhounds as Az looks around and tries to see if anyone is watching. He knows a lot of people who have tried to torment the group have wanted to watch their pain, and Elathias seems like a true sadist and wants to see the pain he inflicts. That begs the question why Elathias has never stayed to watch.

Audacity attacks the nearest demon with his quarterstaff. Ribs crack under the blow and Audacity goes in for two more strikes. This demon is barely clinging to life, the leg that was about to kick out at Adrin snapping as it goes down to one knee.

One imp flies past Audacity towards the inn and is killed by a quick strike by Audacity, the other two darting inside as well and are incinerated instantly by Hava’s Spirit Guardians. The other imps attempt to enter through Yolov’s window and get destroyed. Several other hellhounds try to enter the building, taking cold damage while another bites Yolov despite Galowen trying to intercede.

Both Galowen and Yolov are blasted by lightning from one of the demons while two others enter the kitchen. Hava can hear them moving loudly around inside.

Galowen pushes open the gore-soaked window. Then he casts Turn the Faithless, striking fear into the hellhounds in front of him and sending several of them and the demon back into Hell as Galowen tells them to go home. Then he Misty Steps outside. He can feel the distant heat of the vortex.

Hava moves so that she’s facing the kitchen door. Her pact weapon in her hand, she waits for the demons to try and exit. She knows they’ll walk into her Guardian of Faith and Spirit Guardians, but she also readies Sacred Flame and casts Spiritual Weapon.

Diana breathes out again another spray of acid on the demons and a hellhound. The acid melts them to the bone and destroys the demons completely. Adrin rushes over to bite the hellhound that is still standing, snapping the head off of it.

Yolov also Misty Steps out besides Galowen and closes the third portal. He doesn’t even feel the cold, too focused on protecting his family.

Az tells Diana and Audacity to be careful, that he thinks some of the creatures got inside, before he casts Dimension Door to get to the other side of the roof and right at the edge of the last portal.

The remaining portal spits out three hellhounds.

Audacity dives back through the window. He looks around and sees Hava with a bunch of magical attacks poised at the kitchen door, from which loud noises can be heard. Hava cheerfully tells him that she’s got it, but he heads over to the door as well and prepares himself for whatever is emerging.

A demon kicks the kitchen door off its hinges and is immediately struck by the Guardian of Faith and Hava’s Spirit Guardians. It immediately looks hurt but still claws and stabs her with its tail.

The second demon also is badly injured by the Guardian of Faith and Spirit Guardians.

The hellhounds attack and miss Az while another one bites Galowen. Galowen eyes it before attacking the more badly injured hellhound beside him and killing it. He swings at the second one as well, smiting and carving out a chunk of burning flesh. The hellhound is standing but looks to be on its last legs. He tries to knock it away, but the hellhound just growls.

Hava looks up at the demons towering over her as she flanks one with Audacity and casts Inflict Wounds on it. She giggles a little as the spell peels and rots the wounds already burned by her radiant damage and kills it. Her Spiritual Weapon slams into the second demon for good measure.

The trident stabs it between its ribs as it shrieks in pain.

Diana rushes inside and attacks the remaining demon as well with her shortbow. The arrow lodges in its neck as she fires off a second arrow that goes into the throat as well. It’s barely hanging on.

Yolov Misty Steps to help Az close the final portal. Az feels a wave of cold and exhaustion sweep over him and Yolov barely manages to push through but feels the threat of exhaustion. They watch as all of the hellhounds disappear into smoke.

Only the final demon remains inside. Its head tilts to the side as it crouches down beside Audacity and squints at him as though it seems to know him. Audacity hesitantly says hello in Infernal and it responds in Abyssal. He can’t quite understand what it’s trying to tell him other than it’s a proper noun of some kind.

He points at it and repeats it trying to see if it’s its name. When that gets no response, Audacity waves at the Rope Trick. When Asa pokes her head out, he asks if she speaks Abyssal. She says she does, though she’s a little rusty. The demon is saying Endure, but not as an instruction but as a proper noun.

Hava suggests a virtue name as Asa asks if she can come out now. Audacity says no before he lashes out with his quarterstaff at the demon. The attacks land even as the demon keeps talking in Abyssal. He feels its neck snap with the final blow and the demon falls, unmoving, to the ground.

Yolov immediately rushes upstairs to check on his grandmother, who creaks open a door and shuffles out. She squints blearily at him and asks what the ruckus was all about. She doesn’t have her glass and can’t see the state he’s in. He hugs her, unable to explain, and then helps her slowly down the stairs.

Mhulra embraces Az and then gives him a shake, telling him that she told him not to get hurt. He told her she should have told the enemy that before she starts methodically checking on his injuries.

Asa sidles over to Audacity as everyone climbs out of the Rope Trick and asks if he knows anyone named Mastery. It was what the demon had been calling him before it died. Audacity says he hasn’t heard of any tiefling with that name as Asa excitedly launches into a discussion of virtue names.

Meanwhile Ossya rushes to her mother as Yolov helps her off the last step, rushing to Agnessa and apologizing for her being woken up by the fuss. She leads her over to sit down as Lyov cradles Yolov’s face in his hands and asks if everyone’s all right.

Yolov shakily says that everyone is all right though it will take an effort to clean up.

Lyov says windows can be repaired and demon goo cleaned off clothes, but Yolov is irreplaceable. Yolov says so are they as Lyov steers them towards the bar and tells everyone that it seems like those demons made a mess of the kitchen, but they didn’t get to the bar. Everyone should have a drink.

Audacity approaches Galowen and asks if he can buy him a drink. Galowen quietly says no, and Audacity backs off, giving him space, as Sestri enters the kitchen and begins to shriek at the broken benches and ruined supplies.

She stomps back out and says she needs a drink.

Everyone begins to settle in at the bar as Ingenuity sighs and says he won’t be able to sleep for ten days. He will have so much inspiration for painting.