Astvanor Session 172 (9/26)

[cinaed]

Session 172: Days 27 and 28 of Saedan (9/26)

The same magical fog that attempted to charm Adrin tries to wash over Yolov. The deep ichorous green gaze tries to draw Yolov in, but he fights against Rezod’s compulsion seeing his claws are covered in Hava’s blood. He has almost rent her to pieces.

Diana, clinging to Rezod’s wing, tries to stab him where the wing joint connects. Both shortsword attacks hit home, carving into the wing and feeling it puncture down to the bone. She’s holding this grip on her blade as Rezod bucks and roars out with pain. She starts to slip but uses her second shortsword to hold her steady as she wrenches her short sword further in.

Rezod’s wing beats frantically before it goes limp, the nerves destroyed. As he and Diana begin to fall, she knows that he will never fly again. Adrin darts frantically forward and catches Diana as Rezod slams into the earth.

He lands in front of Hava, who coughs up blood as she looks at him. She sees that this wing is barely connected to his shoulder, bloodied tendons and the entire wing dead weight. She debates casting a painful spell before she casts Mass Cure Wounds and heals everyone.

Rezod refocuses and slams into her with a tail attack. The tail slams into her and sends her sprawling unconscious to the ground.

Az darts around Rezod and casts Hunger of Hadar on Rezod’s damaged wing.

Yolov raises his hand and casts Psychic Lance once more. Rezod manages to resist it, but thick slimy greenish blood trickles from his nostrils.

Rezod’s tail slams into Az’s gut and half-doubles him over.

Audacity looks up at Rezod who is still towering over them even with his injuries and calls out a Fireball directly on his head. Then he stands protectively over Hava’s unconscious body as the fires blast off scales from Rezod’s face and burns the flesh underneath. Then he hits Rezod with his quarterstaff for good measure.

Rezod lashes out with his lair again, this time slamming into Audacity.

Galowen pulls Hava away, throwing up his shield and deflecting Rezod’s attack. Then he casts Lay on Hands and uses the rest of his healing on her. He gives Diana Bardic Inspiration and tells her to finish it.

Rezod lunges at Audacity, biting and carving into him with his teeth and claws.

Another wall of thorn erupts from the earth again. Galowen and Yolov are thrown to the opposite side of the wall, separated from the battlefield.

Diana pulls back her sword, carving into Rezod’s ribcage and spraying blood. Rezod’s head whips towards her and he hisses in Draconic, “Insolent brat. Do you forget who raised you?”

Diana says he raised nothing. He killed the person who raised her. She chose her family. She points at everyone and says that he won’t take that away.

Rezod growls that he will not sit here and let something so small be the one to strike him down. He lunges and bites Diana a second before Adrin dives in and bites his throat, knocking him down so that Diana can approach him.

In common, she says, “My life you took from me. My parents are unknown. My family gone. Bits and pieces cannot heal because of you. I’m around legendary individuals and because of you I think myself not. But today I am legendary, surrounded by a legendary family and people that I love. You woke up today believing you could not die by someone weak. So instead you will die to someone strong.”

She stabs the shortsword into his jaw and drags it down. She sees the hatred in his eyes, the only look she’s ever seen him use, that hatred intensifying as she speaks, until that one strike of her blade, that look is extinguished and nothing but emptiness takes over.

Rezod is dead. He falls lifeless to the ground.

Almost immediately she feels a rush of relief. MORE

Then Diana looks at Hava and Audacity and says they need to go save the boy. Audacity says lead the way, dragonslayer.

Hava rushes towards Diana, demanding a group hug. They all crowd around her for a moment, bloodied, as Hava feels the twig twitch in the direction that is a little bit sideways from the entrance.

Diana leads them into the lair. The entrance is a filthy, damp cave entrance. It looks like it used to be filled with thriving plant life, but in the recent minutes it has all begun to decay and fall apart.

There are a few different twists and turns that Diana leads them through almost effortlessly. There’s a sense of familiarity and muscle memory as she takes them deeper into the lair. For the first fifteen minutes, they don’t see anything. There are piles of fetid meat and bones pushed into corners, Rezod’s old rotting meals of people he was eating.

Diana always knew if she’d stayed here, she probably would have ended up as Rezod’s meal. It gnaws at her as she leads the Hooligans into a large circular room. Rezod spent a lot of time here. There are piles of gold here.

Yolov casts Detect Magic and finds two magical armor and a box of five unlabeled potions as well as a tarnished ring that gives off a magical energy. There is a shortsword that is kind of laid up against the wall.

Yolov casts Identify on the shortsword even as he remarks that Rezod should have more stuff here if he’s been as established here as possible. Surely the constructs wouldn’t have drained his gold.

Diana knows why. Gold and magical items weren’t Rezod’s true hoard. People were. She explains how Rezod attacked adventuring groups and gave them either the option to die or work for him.

Audacity looks at Diana and says in case it needs to be said, she is the bravest person he knows. Diana looks shocked by this and says thank you.

Diana muses on her bravery as she brings them to the room where Rezod keeps his hoard, some people chained to the walls, all of them wearing rags, the horrible smell of unwashed bodies hitting the group. A few people are clustered around a particular corner.

One woman steps forward. Diana recognizes her as Clearbell. She tells Diana she shouldn’t be here, she should go, and looks disbelieving as Diana tells her that Rezod is dead.

Clearbell hugs her, beginning to shake. Her hands are dried and crusted with blood. People are turning and looking at them at this announcement.

One person runs and Yolov calls after them to stay away from the water, it’s still dangerous. Everyone else stays, including two people chained to the wall.

Clearbell says Rezod brought him. He’s so young and so badly injured.

Hava immediately moves towards the bloodied figure and spies Cal’travor as Galowen breaks the chains off of the two people. She heals Cal’travor as Yolov helps him put on the Ring of Regeneration, which will regrow his arm in two days.

Clearball keeps hugging Diana and tells her about her parents. Her mother had been taken by Rezod, her mother not knowing she was pregnant until after she’d been captured, and her father had been killed trying to rescue her.

Hearing this, Az suggests they might still be around. He could cast Etherealness on Diana and she could see if their ghosts are still haunting this place. Once Diana has been assured that Rezod would not leave a ghost himself, she agrees.

Az casts the spell.

Diana finds herself in the Ethereal Plane, surrounded by Rezod’s victims. Many she doesn’t recognize, but many she does. She spies the Whiteleaf woman who raised her and her parents. Through careful pantomime, she reassures them that she is alive and Rezod is dead.

Her parents and the Whiteleaf woman express their gratitude and her father points out the shortsword Yolov had examined. It was his. It has his initials on it and is quite a powerful weapon.

When Diana says goodbye and returns to the material plane, she tells everyone what she learned. There are a lot of tears before everyone begins to prepare to gather up the prisoners and help them all get back to the Grove.