Astvanor Session 192 (9/11)

[cinaed]

Session 192: Month of Veksdan (9/11)

Behind them all there’s a ripple of heat that pours through the rend of time and space. Instinctively at the dry heat, they all whip around, expecting to see flames. Instead what they see is empty and flat cracked earth, where wind whips through and brings the dry dust to tear at their skin and hair, almost like an exfoliant.

Piles of this dust begin to build at their feet. Everyone closes their mouth on instinct, Yolov watching and realizing that this isn’t sand. On a geological aspect, it’s too thick and translucent. When he studies the plane through the fracture, he realizes it’s a quasi-elemental plane between an elemental plane or a negative plane, an intensifier or rejection of the plane.

This is an inversion plane of water, instead it’s a plane of salt. The salt coalesces into these enormous golem features. Yolov is explaining this in everyone’s minds as Diana leaps forward to attack them.

She immediately takes fire damage and feels some of her energy sapped from her. She breathes out a wave of lightning at both of these salt golems, which both take the brunt of her draconic breath. Parts of them blacken like a salt crust.

Adrin lunges for the closest golem and bites it as Diana attacks again with her breath.

The golems begin to look badly injured, groaning and screeching.

Beyond Audacity, Ilania turns over the Sun in the Sword in her hands and says one at a time isn’t very challenging. Do they think their enemies will come one at a time? She tears another fracture into existence behind Hava.

This time a small swarm of five flying tiny armored elephants burst from the fracture before anyone can even register the plane within the fracture. It’s a peaceful plane of Elysium. The holiphants are clearly terrified and surge forward.

One of the salt golems misses Diana with its first attack, but the second block lands. The second one tries to slam down onto Adrin but Diana takes both heavy blows.

The panicked holiphants attack the first people they see with thunderous trumpeting attacks. Everyone except Diana and Adrin take damage as they fly blindly into people and Audacity and Az are deafened.

Audacity blinks a little and says, “You’d be kind of cute if you weren’t so loud.” The holiphant responds, being sentient, but Audacity cannot hear it. The holiphants are small, but when he tries to grab it, it squirms out of his grip.

He heads towards the fracture and feels the holiphant’s tusks hit him in the ass. When he presses his hand to the fracture, he can feel the cold creeping up his hand from Evie’s gift. He feels exhaustion sweep through him even as the fracture closes.

Iliana watches this and says she’s seen worse. She’s also seen better.

Az attempts to hit one of the salt golems with his Eldritch Blasts to knock it back into through the fracture. The golem dies, slumped against the fracture, as Az uses his final Eldritch Blast and misses one of the holiphants.

Galowen moves towards the other tear and closes it, but feels the heat sear him and his energy sap from him as he approaches it.

Hava looks around and casts Spirit Guardians. None of the holiphants are particularly hardy and four of them look immediately battered.

Yolov looks at the holiphants and tells them that he can get them home if they will just stand down. The holiphants look mournfully towards where their fracture was before Audacity closed it and says they can’t get to their home anymore.

Yolov sighs and gives Audacity a reproachful look as he casts Crown of Stars. Seven tiny spectral Eses appear circling his head. He sends one at the remaining salt golem, destroying it.

Another fracture opens up almost exactly where the holiphants’ fracture just vanished. Glyn disappears, one of the holiphants dies, and both Hava and Audacity are swept off their feet by a waterfall rushing out from the plane of water.

Diana almost breathes out her lightning breath at the water, having been braced for another attack, but her ranger reflexes make her turn in time to unleash it on a pillar instead of electrocuting everyone in the water.

They all watch this torrential flood rush across the temple, knocking aside old bones and bodies and splintering the pews. The water seems to arch up into a wave, except the wave freezes and three distinct points form almost a peak and edges like arms. This is a greater water elemental.

It rushes forward towards Az and takes two attacks on him as the holiphants attack, one trying to attack Audacity with its tusks and missing, the second and third sending burning sparkles from their trunks towards Hava, Audacity, and Az.

Audacity stands up and hits the water elemental with a water whip before moving over and beginning to pummel it with a flurry of blows.

Az follows this up with a Shatter against the water elemental within itself, sending water splashing everywhere. Then Az bolts away from the water. When he glances towards Ilania, her expression is easy to read. She doesn’t look disappointed. She either wants the Hooligans to succeed or very obviously fail. So far they seem to be succeeding, but she’s not quite impressed.

Galowen wades into the water to strike at the water elemental. His sword flashes with light as both of his sword attacks strike home with a tremendous amount of divine force. What’s left of it afterwards is a small ripple, still alive but just barely.

Hava also gets up, her Spirit Guardians dissipating as she lifts herself into the air. She mutters in Aquan that this is so annoying. She casts Mass Cure Wounds on everyone.

Yolov sends another of the Es-like stars at the water elemental, which dissolves immediately even as the holiphants begin to flee towards the windows.

At the front of the temple, Ilania steps down from the altar. She puts out a hand and closes the planar rift to the plane of water before she steps further down the aisle. She asks if they believed these were the only threats they were expected to fight. The Sun in the Sword isn’t just a tool that can be easily used or controlled.

She points her long sword and says that they’ll have to fight her.